Brian’s Reflection: Friday, April 9, 2010

Everything for me becomes allegory.

Charles Baudelaire, poet, translator,
literary critic, born on this date, 1821

Yes. Me too. The longer I live, the more allegorical Life becomes. The word “allegory” has its roots in late Middle English, from Old French, via Latin and Greek. It means “speaking other”. This is what I find as I get older: Everything speaks of deeper, other meaning. This does not surprise me at all. It is as it should be, as it is meant to be.

“I” speak of “other”. Who I am as an individual being reveals more and more about the majesty and mystery of being Human. “The World” speaks of other dimensions of Being. “God” speaks of other, vaster Mysteries, of Unknowabilities. “Black and White” loses meaning; “facts” speak of other more vivid, rich truths.

There is an evil power taking over in America. Things are being reduced to a poverty of meaning. Religion, politics, culture, education: they all are being reduced to a kind of sour stark meanness. If it goes on, it will destroy American life. In fact, it has rotted away much already – and the effect is palpable. America is becoming a pinched, moralistic, narrow, joyless, suspicious society.

My hope is for a reawakening of Allegorical Life. And I intend to embody it.

Brian+