Thank You for Stepping Away from the Lying Fire into the Sun Light

Sometimes we settle for beliefs and small “truths” to comfort us or get us by as we toil in the world, focused on our survival.

It takes a leap into the unfamiliar to see beyond a moment of struggle, of limitation, or inculturation to accept the norm.

A small fire can keep us temporarily warmed, cook our food, and lull us into a false security until we doze off and forget the bigger purpose of our lives.

Fear will keep us from leaving that small fire behind to walk into the light of the Sun, to look, with new eyes, at the larger truth.

It is a stretch for many to extract themselves from propaganda, social pressures, ignorance—things that feed small fires.

Imagine a village where everyone lived in houses that were dimly lit by a small fireplace (or perhaps a television) and they never went outside to look at the sky.

From Moby Dick by Herman Melville:

“Look not too long in the face of the fire, O man! Never dream with thy hand on the helm! Turn not thy back to the compass; accept the first hint of the hitching tiller;

“… believe not the artificial fire, when its redness makes all things look ghastly. To-morrow, in the natural sun, the skies will be bright; those who glared like devils in the forking flames, the morn will show in far other, at least gentler, relief; the glorious, golden, glad sun, the only true lamp–all others but liars!”

Village of Sleeping Truths

36×36 Acrylic and Gold on Canvas

by Lea Kelley

Note to Self:

Hey, Keep your hands on the helm, don’t crash your Pequod!

~ by leakelley on March 31, 2009.