Founding words..

At this point in my life I am feeling a particular resonance with the following couplet from the Bible, Corinthians 13. I’m not religious at all in practice but I recognise that any collection of centuries of human wisdom is a precious resource, so I own a copy of each of the major religious texts. I take great pleasure from working on becoming familiar with them all. Similarities and differences alike. 

In the past I have been known to see through such dark glass, and have lied to myself so completely, that fact and fiction have meshed indistinguishably. A not insignificant part of my past is fiction, which is a shame and doesn’t really do justice to the person that I am. A not insignificant fact, is that I cannot ascertain which events in my past the fiction covers. So the path forward, for me, is more accepting, more open, more honest and made of clearer glass.

I imagine it like a shard of broken green-bottle, dark, jagged and dangerous to handle, dropped into the ocean. It slowly becomes weathered by the tide, the sharp edges soften, the colour fades in the sun and it becomes a smooth, pleasant jewel, weighty and satisfying to cradle in the palm of your hand.

Hence:

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.