Five Days of Wisdom. Day 4: Contemplation

 ‘My name is Contemplation,’ she said, ‘and I am one of the daughters of Wisdom.  You must rise and follow me.’ 

   John felt no doubt of her and gathered himself together and leaped.  His leap carried him further than he had intended–though he felt no suprise…and the Lady was there by his side.

   Then they went on together over hills and dales, very fast, in the moonlight, til they came to the edge of a cliff, and he looked down and saw the sea below and out in the sea lay the Island…

   ‘When you have leanred to fly futher, we can leap from here right into the Island,’ said the Lady.  ‘But for this night, it is enough.’

                                           -Pilgrim’s Regress, Book 7, chap VII 

   We have confused many things in this age:  

  -expediency is the wolf clothed in the sheepskin-term, ‘efficiency’

  -many roads to nowhere substitute for progress down a narrow path and who wants to miss an opportunity?

  -as the renowned Wauwatosa East English teacher, Ms. Bertorello, used to say, “you people think that a party is two people and a six pack.”  Who more able than she to teach Tenessee Williams’ observation that not only ‘epic fornications,’ but trite stoicism can rob us of our essential humanity?

   Modern meditation 

      Cartesian drivel

      plastic drumsticks beating 

      on the hollow tin can of self

      drowning out the whisper of Contemplation

      She who with longing sighs

      beckons hearts made for eternity:

      “consider well your hunger and thirst”

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