A note of encouragement...

Why do I lament that this process, that beginning again takes work? It’s a great work, as if you found a waterwheel abandoned long ago in an old millhouse – or perhaps it was never even set in motion. But all the parts are there, everything is sufficient in order to grind the wheat and make flour. Unfortunately, you find that over the years creepers have grown up to effectively prevent motion. So many theories clog the wheel- theories of love, religion, politics, philosophy, art… but they are no good without a life to back them up. Yet what is life? You can’t smoke it. So you begin to pull back the creepers, to push your fingers into the cracks and pull loose pebbles, blow away sand and grit; push the large rocks out of the way, and move loose boards that have fallen from the rafters. You see Ptolemy there, and catch a glance of Copernicus…Thomas and Augustine are still arguing, not so much on content as on policy…and are there four kinds of love? Push them away, push, push! Don’t stop until the boards emerge, red-brown and perfect under the dust of years. There is more work to be done still, please refrain from fooling. Polishing, greasing, honing – it is not light; it is a life’s work.