A SHORT BOOK OF LONG STORIES

158. A SHORT BOOK OF LONG STORIES:

Sometimes I think it's all in how you can answer the question 'are you in love with the world?' that designates how we get along and go about our daily occurrences and I know that for myself in many a day the answer for that would have been some sullen form of 'no' but that then there are other days altogether different when that same query would have raised a resounding 'yes' without any further thought and that's the situation wherein I'd actually like to be spending the bulk of my time because it makes all the other things move along much more freely and happily - it's like suddenly being liberated from a cramped and stuffy room all cluttered and falling down with things and being brought out instead into some more airy and freely-lit space wherein each item is placed carefully and separately and the resultant feeling overall is then of much more order and clarity - there's a spatial difference somehow which reflects itself back upon the quality of that same space - and it's NOT that I'm ever a big fan of ORDER if it's just for order itself (I'm not) but instead I mean the order-through-grace which comes when correct things just correctly fall into place and the soul somehow knows it - in some ways an interesting corollary with which to exemplify this is when they build those big scenic highways along the bluffs and ridges atop or alongside rivers - this happens now in lots of places across the country - and you know as you're passing that this is all engineered and cleared and laid out and paved with the most rigorous and strict line and angle but at the same time the enfusing force of openness and nature that it brings forth belies the paradox of what it is - you simply 'feel' what's happening and what's passing in spite of the fact of all the industrial awe behind it and the (sometimes) laborious work and force which went into its construction and it's a form of tastelessness too akin to being a cop or saying that 'God' is unnecessary or mentioning 'God' in all his malfeasance and then having the audacity to hold it all against Him - all that and nothing more (but nothing less either) - and ask yourself about these things sometime too : anyway WHICH would you rather have ? a short book of long stories or a long book of short stories ? and either way the answer is yours and becomes your world.