Peaks and Valleys

At the end of The Lord of the Rings, Frodo says to Sam, “Do not be too sad, Sam. You cannot always be torn in two. You will have to be one and whole, for many years.”

My mind continually turns to thoughts of unity and division, but like all instances involving humans, even that dichotomy is not simply about one choice or another. We are living at a time when nothing is as it seems, when the voices crying for peace (unity) can be trusted even less than those screaming the slogans that appear to cause nothing but division.

Everyday, I strap myself into a car of the roller coaster, hold on tight, and start the ride that plunges me into a pit where all is crystal clear. It is filled with messages about us against them, freedom vying with tyranny, good vs. evil, and illusion covering reality like a trompe l’oeil window on a solid wall. But the train of cars then starts to climb, and I get slowly ratcheted up to a pinnacle from which I can see the real lay of the land. Here at the top, I find only one word: Love. The question then becomes: How do I extricate myself from this seatbelt and metal bar so I can climb from the car and stay here always? I never manage it before the metal can I’m in starts another descent. That’s when I turn to look over shoulder and desperately search for a place to stand on that tiny peak, just in case I ever do find myself there again and am finally able to break free.