What makes gleaming eyes
opened to the beauty of the world
shrivel closed and beauty fade
like wilting flowers?
The world seen as ideal
as though it were
the only realm
to become
cynical retort.
What perverts
free imagination
into a fixed idea,
a single map,
unchartered and
misguided?
And what should distill
the eight urges of life
into the "only one".
And how does a world,
spherical and round,
grow flat?
~~
Chad had to know more.
"A new Slant On Life" was
answering many questions,
but he found himself asking
more and nore questions.
He logged onto the Net
and found the Dianetics Site
which listed more
of Mr. Hubbard's books.
The one that really indicated-
"The Dynamics of Life"-
he promply ordered.
Chad was rife with anticipation.
There remained, however,
a restive, nullifying voice saying,
"It's too good to be true."
Chad tossed and turned
each sleepless night
waiting for the book,
praying to himself
he'd found the map,
that he wasn't chasing
an illusion, while
fending off echoing barbs
of the hidden voice,
the unrelenting cynicism
of a flat world.
~~
Chad met the postman
at the door to retrieve
the mail and was handed
a brown envelope.
"Ah!" sighed Chad,
"It must be my book."
Not waiting to traverse
the creaky flight of stairs,
Chad broke open the package
and removed the book.
A smaller envelope fell
to the floor as he slid
out the book-
an invitation it appeared,
handwritten in calligraphy-
It read:
ANATOMY OF HUMAN COURSE
DIANETICS SELF-IMPROVEMENT CENTER
836 MAIN ST.
BUFFALO, NY
INTRO-LECTURE: "WHAT IS STRESS
AND HOW TO REVENT IT"
THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 2009, 7:30 PM
ADMISSION FREE
GUEST LECTURER PIER ANGELO, NOTED ITALIAN ARTIST,
MUSICIAN AND LECTURER AND ORIGINATOR AND HOST
OF ANATOMY OF HUMAN MIND LECTURE SERIES FOR ITALIAN TV.
RSVP
716-856-3910
~~
"Man, the stress has been
getting to me", Chad thought
as he finished reading
the invitation.
"The loss of my Wall Street job,
the struggle to pay school loans
on server's tips
in a spend-less-economy,
depression that lingers
through anxious days and
sleepless nights."
Just as Chad's eyes had opened
to the world about him,
so, too, he felt its pain.
"My goals are shattered.
I have no direction,
no future."
"I've been living a sham
in a world of slippery slopes.
Chad clasped
the invitation tightly
in his hand.
"If only the map
is here."
When somewhere
out of the deep spoke
the hidden voice,
"How do you know
you won't be betrayed?"
"Shut up, damn you!"
Chad screaming
at the craven voice
hiding its face.
"Enough of you saying
I'm a marked man."
But somehow,
Chad mustered
enough courage and will
and RSVP'd
for the lecture.
~~
Chad was taken
from the start
with the speaker,
an Italian artist
named Pier,
whose smile seemed
to stretch from one end
of the room to the other,
absorbing and taking in
every listener as though
he was standing right
next to you-
a presence about him
that wriggled its way
under your skin.
What cares Chad came with
seemed to melt
into the night.
Every word,
despite his accent,
was clear with simple meaning
but profound impact.
Chad had sat through
many lectures as a student
and had always had the feeling
of being talked down to,
or talked at-
but this was different.
It was hard to explain,
the sensation of being
talked to and included
in the speaker's world
as though he was saying
each of us was valuable.
"And so, stress," said Pier,
"Is merely unbalanced effort."
Chad lit up like a light bulb:
"Wrong goals for wrong reasons
could only end in confusion",
he realized.
Pier continued,
"And so you think you are a king,
but you act like a begger."
Chad felt like he'd been lifted
out of his chair,
and the room was brighter
and he could feel
a smile undulating
across his face
dor the first time
in many months.
"I see. I was pretending
goals while knowing
I had compromised
for money, and set out
to garner a career
on Wall Street
rather than living
my passion for art."
"And every since,
I only grew colder,
uncaring and arrogant
so as to shield myself
from my own disdain,
all the while living
a naked existence
to propitiate to everyone
and everything who mattered
in my life."
~~
Copyright 2009 Francis Don Daniels
