This Extraordinary Divide

by Richard M. Ankers

Life does not pool. It is not a liquid, as some surmise. Life does not lap upon eternity’s shores, nor froth upon infinity’s endless tides. There is no moving from here to there, no flowing. Life is a solid built of permanent divides. In the permanent, we trust. 

There are many such divides, from heaven and earth, to life and death, to day and night. We adapt to these dependent upon our beliefs and teachings, our desires and nightmares, and any number of less significant factors. Although, to the individual in question, insignificant might be the biggest insult of all. And therein lies the issue. 

If we were like water, as Bruce Lee wished us to be, though for entirely different purposes, we would move between these states without forethought or anguish. We would adapt at will, pouring from one moment to the next. But we cannot. Or, we will not. As stones requiring chiseling from humanity’s bedrock, we do what we want, how we want, when we want, and nothing more. 

These extraordinary divides we have constructed through necessity have imprisoned us. If only we could flow through or around them. If only we could rain from one to the other and evaporate all over again. If? It is the smallest big word out there. And I would see it gone. 

I talk as though I know, or desire to, or dare to dream. The truth? I fear the divide more than any. My mind understands the if of it all. My hands would wring the very life from it. The if we could, would, should, strengthen the divide, not weaken it. With every heaped thought, the divide grows larger until no ladder might scale it, nor plane cruise over it, nor mind think beyond it. 

As I write these words, cacti spring up in my mind, and the temperature increases. All is arid and wild. The sun bleaches the earth and there’s not an oasis in sight. And yet, I write still, hopeful that this extraordinary divide shall crumble like a badly built dam and the water shall deluge once more. 

This is my life, and it does not part like water. If it did, perhaps things would be easier. 

Image by Antonio López from Pixabay 

https://richardankers.com

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