~* If you were standing here right now with me beneath these dripping trees, you'd be inside the heart of this. We would listen to damp sounds of crunching gravel rolling by, and I would say, "Look at me." I would pull out from my purse a small compact and open it to show you the mirror; then, I would say, "Look here." I would show you your own eyes, and I would say, "Look closely." Do you think that they will look the same when all of this is over? I will ask you if, in a month from now, when you look at yourself in a mirror, will anything look different. Is there room for change in you? When you look into your own eyes, will you see only today's calamity?
"You're in love, aren't you?" he accused.
I smiled coyly. "Silly billy," I said with a coquettish grin. "I'm always in love... You're always in love if you're in love with the world."
At this very moment, somewhere in the world, a war is being fought, a prodigy is being born, the love of someone's life is dying. Everything is connected. Today, let us be untouchable. Let us be gods today. Man recognizes beauty only if he sees it, relationships only when they're lost; hatred if he feels it seldom, love when he stands from afar.
Laugh with me. When you laugh I want to change the entire world so that it will mirror you. Ask me again, "Would you like to go ... there? It's lovely there today, everything's in bloom..." Certainly it's all in bloom, certainly we'll go. Are you and I not gods? Our senses are immeasurable.
Listen - I am happy. As I wander at night the track where I live and through the paths and alleys by the gazebo, barely sensing the give of damp leaves beneath my worn out soles, I carry proudly my ineffable happiness. The centuries will roll by, and school boys will yawn at the history of our upheavals; everything will pass, but my happiness, dear, my happiness will remain, in the moist reflection of a dreary day, in the cautious winter blooms that carefully caress gazebos, in the smile of a dancing couple, in everything with which God so generously surrounds human loneliness.
Listen - I wanted to run all of my life, screaming at the top of my lungs. Now I let all of life be an unfettered howl, like the crowd greeting the gladiator. Do not stop to think, do not interupt the scream. Exhale. Remember that everything's in bloom. Everything is connected. Everything is screaming, then choking on its screams. Laughter. Running. Let-down hair.
This is all there is.
