Somewhere before this post, I 'postulated' that a great many works of contemporary architecture seem rather impotent due to its inability to handle theological realities. I had a nocturnal epiphany a couple of nights ago, which helped me understand this more by 'enlightening' me to what great depths man's heart longs for beauty.
Death, the fear and admiration for it was a muse to me.
Needless to say, this is not something new. Death too, is not something new, nor something we can speak too much of. But there is nonetheless a resistance to its mystery. Constant, it is in the human heart. It knows us, but we know it not. The more we speak concerning it, the greater the premonition of isolation and this abyss anchors our minds deeper and deeper since we know not the depth of an inverted sky.
If it were only always this simple, the two polarities in view of eternity are as such, those who fight against eternity and those who fight for eternity. The notion that eternity does not exist, does not arise here since those who do not labour for an 'after-life' which they disbelieve in, do after all wish nothing else but to save themselves before death. This implies a race against time, a race against what surely comes which is already the now - the eternity which 'is' ongoing.
The 'thread' that fights against eternity preserves not for a tomorrow but for a now. In a sense, it is truly living in a tomb whose tombstone is not designed to be removed. It is concerned with the immediate and identifies himself and his environment as mere commodity and resource. This does not mean that there are no emotional and spiritual connections between these bodies but that in the 'reality' of his viewpoint, his fears suffice to comprehend these as such.
Conversely, those who embrace eternity, let not their temporary pleasures, rich as they seem cloud their vision of their true destiny. Sacrifices come to them as a type of necessary hurdle for a better, a fuller person. As a result, while this is common to both traits, people of this category are not content with the present, not out of greed but because the ultimate 'reality' is a place they believe can only exist on the other wing of death. Thus, there is an incessant longing for another, an Other, but that attainment of it does not come out of an original effort, rather a compelling force like a magnet which tugs its servant to that One whereby all that is false is carved out from the interior of its soul.
Carving a cave inside out (...next)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I like this better than the poems. Maybe because it's prose in poetic form?
I like the analysis on the difference between the search for eternity here and in the hereafter. I've often felt it-but never articulated so succinctly.
Do write more.
Post a Comment