Dust

I'll do better than fear, I will show you love and loathing and deep abiding joy in this handful dust. In this bit of nothing I can show you the whole world and all of its wonders, and make you hate me for it, or make you weep with the joy of it all. Look closer, this meaningless lump of clay- or heap of dust, or puddle of grimy water- is the last afterbirth of a star, and has traveled millions of years of fire and ice and darkness, and been trodden on by gods and monsters, and seen a woman crying. Look, cruelty, look, glory, look an age of light and shadow in one breath, look, and all things of all time are revealed. Do you see the empires that this stone upheld? Do you see the great forests that grew from a seed planted in this very ground? And do you see that all of this glory, this greatness, is repeated a billion times in this field we lay down in? And a billion billion billion more times in the stars that shine bright above us? Do you hear the great song that is sung high and low and all around us, how it welcomes us and glories in us just as we glory in it. Look, look, look. See what is man and not man, and see how each is so beautiful, does it make you cry out? Does it make your soul yearn for more, to see everything, to feel the strands of this great web in your own hands? But now, look back to me. Look at my eyes, and let me look at yours. And hear me, not the song that stars and stones sing. And feel my skin, not the great thrumming threads that tie us to the Heavens. And here, together in the night, make with me something greater than either your shadow in the morning striding behind you, or your shadow in the evening rising to meet you. Together we'll make something that will shine far brighter than a sun, more beautiful than all the glories of dust. Lay down with me, and make a new world, and forget the glories of this one for a while. Look at what we make. Look, look, look.