His big toe, the Stalwart, is poised upon the threshold of
Adventure. Below lie grains of sand like fallen Planets, magnificent in their ignored
intricacy. Between the Stalwart and the foremost Planet space is eternal: minute
as a universe, enormous as an atom, unfathomable to our petty understanding.
The
Stalwart, while being of rather simple appearance, is a subtle being bearing
the complexities of many Adventures. The Stalwart has met Fire and burned, Ice and
froze, Comfort and relaxed, Hardship and struggled. Many times has it forgotten
Truth for fact, become complacent and been reminded. Each time that it seems to
choose poorly, it chooses wisely, for it seeks to learn. Hesitation is a thing
learned, too, a choice itself, crafted of the ridiculous Fear that some Things
are bad. For once upon a Moment the
Stalwart was energetic as a young child, as exuberant as a new lover, as
Adventuresome as God Herself. And the Stalwart remember this an Idea, but isn’t
ready to remember the Act.
Behind the
Stalwart are the other toes: the Grasper, long and pliant and eager; the
Feeler, sensing, analyzing, aware; the Stabilizer, counterweighing the
Stalwart; and lastly, the Runt, squat, useless, ugly. Each respectfully,
eagerly awaits its time for action, its manifestation of Meaning.
And thus the
Moment comes! swift as a peregrine diving, powerful as an elephant charging,
subtle as a butterfly becoming. The Stalwart plunges forward and down through
space eternal to meet the Adventure hidden within the folds of fallen Planets.
That is how Mitch
the Cat steps onto the beach. He navigates the high tide line, wincing as he
feels the barnacles, gasping when a rock slips. At the first tidepool he
shudders, wades through quickly and placidly as he can, fearing the Splash. At
the first sandbar, he tiptoes around shells, meanders about aimlessly, head
down. This is his fourth day Mitch the Cat wander-wonders around on the beach,
and he is yet to know whatever it is he is looking for here, let alone pursue
it or achieve it. Maybe he is looking for Nothing, which is a wonderful
Adventure, but not the one for him.
Courage isn’t
a prevailing attribute of Mitch’s in this Moment, but once upon a Moment it
was, and it certainly could be again.
He’s just not ready to learn from Courage. Though he is oblivious to this Truth,
head down, caught within the cage of his own overwhelming thoughts, he is
learning quite a lot from Hesitation. You see, Hesitation causes his great
Weariness, and he doesn’t realise this yet, but he will.
He starts in
the early morning, as Hesitation is overcome by the Stalwart’s Courage. The
tide is a couple sandbars out. He follows its patient progress, pacing, rambling
on to himSelf silently, but sometimes out loud if there is no one around and he
is feeling rather passionate about an Idea. These days the tide stops going out
after about a mile, and that is Fact because there’s a big stone monolith that
proves so. Mitch hasn’t actually measured the distance from road to monolith,
but a kid told him it was “the Mile Marker”. [How could I measure it?] Mitch
the Cat wonders, and then after a few seconds of wondering about that moves on
to wondering about how anybody measures any large distance and so forth ever
deeper into the abstract (the pointlessness of which I will save you from)
until he hears or sees or remembers some other Thing to which he can create an
Idea to wonder about. And so forth onwards to nowhere.
But before
you click the little X to leave this blog and do your best to forget about its current
pointlessness, I assure you that there is a Moment in which our dear fellow
begins to wonder about some Idea of Meaning. It’s the same Moment he
rediscovers his Courage, and it’s such an exciting Moment that I dearly wish to
share it with you now, but if I did you just wouldn’t get it, because it wouldn’t have any Meaning for you like it has
for me and for Mitch. So we all must be patient, then.
Anyway,
where am I? Oh yes, I’m with Mitch. But where is he again?
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