My friend has borrowed my Sandman collection to read. I honestly can't remember anything about the longer stories, but some of the one shots stick in my mind. The one about the Emporer of America ("Three Septembers and a January"?), "Dream of a Thousand Cats," and "A Hope in Hell" all made some kind of lasting impression. The last recounts a wizards battle between Dream and the devil in which each claim a form that can destroy the previous one (eg. cat, coyote, farmer with a shotgun, wife with divorce papers, etc.). The claims escalate until the devil claims all of the horrors of hell. As the title suggests, Dream wins by claiming Hope. The idea of course is that hope endures all things and cannot be defeated.
I told my wife the other night that some of the pressures and greedy striving passions are released when one accepts that "Everything ends." Steve Taylor sang "Since I Gave up Hope, I Feel A Lot Better" sarcastically. Dylan Thomas (whoever he was) wants us to "rage against the dying of the light" even in the wisdom that we are not God.
I guess that thermodynamically speaking I should say everything breaks down. Entropy happens. But my practical side says "Perception is reality." In other words, this may not be the real world, but it's worth paying attention to it. When things break down or change significantly they lose the gestalt that I associated with their identity. So while there may be pieces remaining, the original thing is, as far as I'm concerned, gone.
Eek, I'm rambling and blurting. I was just going to talk about what I read today at lunch.
I'm a little over two hundred pages into "The System of the World" and Daniel Waterhouse has had a little epiphany while floating down the Hope (a portion of the River Thames, right near the mouth). He realized that people kept turning to him because they percieved him as having hope. By not giving outward signs that he was "scared shitless" and appearing relatively confident others saw him as a beacon. He reflects that his manufactured hope in turn gives real hope to others. He likens this to the alchemical dream of turning lead into gold.
On my drive back to the office Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation" played at me. He wrote that Las Vegas is a city of the present. It is entirely manufactured having no connection to it's surrounding geography. Nothing there is built to last. Some of the big names like "Sands" and "Mirage" exemplify the temporary nature and illusory reality of the place.
It got me to thinking about the value of past, present, and future. The balance necessary with all of them. Learn from the past, but do not dwell in it. Love the present, but do not try to make tomorrow like today. Plan for the future, but do not worry. All things in moderation.
Overheard: "Crushed idealism doesn't need to lead to cynicism and anger. When I began to place my idealism in the right place -- the worship of Christ -- my anger faded."
As my body fails to inevitable old age and sickness takes the lives of friends and family, I take comfort in knowing that the world, which currently is cursed, will be renewed at the coming of the King and Redeemer. It's like I'm learning to look through things to see the certainties that lie beyond. My hope is not wishful thinking; it is confidence in the character and completed work of Christ. And the more I think this way, the more uncomfortable I am saying cynical and sarcastic things. Thanks be to God who is completing His work in me! Yea, God!
Love, Mom
Posted by: Susan McJilton at January 14, 2005 5:17 PM