31: Caverns of Time
So I promised you notes on hope by and through a surrealist story, this surrealist story. One thing of course is the very obvious escape from current, lived reality. This allows for a short time of rest, for me writing it as well as for you reading it. To some extent that’s true of every story, though.
What’s particular about One-Armed Nick? In allowing myself a space to experiment freely, I’m allowing you, my lovely readers, to forget the shackles of adulthood, and of societal and familial expectation. I’m giving you a chance to exist outside of time for a moment. That’s similar to the first point, only deeper. It’s more than that, though.
With this world we’re currently existing through, we’ve all been taught we have to think and be in very distinct, linear ways. We often find ourselves belittled or excluded if we dare to think, feel or speak outside of this “logical”, “rational” and “productive” ethos. (Think I’m exaggerating? Try being someone who leads with your spirit, intuition and emotional intelligence first and see what kind of response you get). If many of you were honest, I think you’d say you’re weary. The society we’ve built doesn’t nurture us or feed our wellbeing: it takes, endlessly.
This work of surreal, absurdist imagination which I’m producing allows deeper, older truths to surface. Things which have to be suppressed in every day life. Things which a lot of people have forgotten exist and then wonder why their mental health is suffering.
This story, ironically, has an order to it which the world at large lacks right now. As I said last week, you know what the rules are, what to expect. The tragic irony of the world we’ve created is that trying to impose the same way of thinking and being on everyone - and a very toxic, productivity-focused way of being at that - is that it results in total disarray, disintigration. There comes a point at which aspects of humanity when held under restraint for too long have to re-assert themselves. They are doing so in very destructive ways at the moment. We are living with the outworkings of a political experiment which has gone horribly, horribly wrong.
So… I give you One-Armed Nick. A world in which the surreal madness is benign, not destructive and life threatening.
This week Lorelei discovers a little more about her heritage.
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31: Caverns of Time
Lorelei wasn’t very good at flower names. It had never been an issue in Oxford. But now her job was to find the flowers for chapel. It was 10:45am. The Eucharist finished at 10:30 and most of the sisters had a cup of tea before starting their second work period of the day from 11am. But Lorelei felt no need of tea. She wanted to be out of the way in case someone cornered her and tried to talk about the donkey.
