"I could be blogging this," I thought. Then I selfishly kept it to myself for a bit. Sipping a latte- a good latte, much better than starbucks- in a giant ballroom in a palace while typing on the next book.
The palace- murdering bastards or not, megalomaniacs do some really cool architecture. The Presidential Palace- marble and inlay, hammered gold door, murals on ceilings forty feet high and domed. Isher-style optical illusions that aren't illusions because they are done in three dimensions... very, very cool.
Sitting under the billiards pavillion next to the swimming pool. Drinking cold water and thinking, just thinking.
It was beautiful and there is meaning in that. There is meaning and many lessons in every contrast in this land, in history and its consequences, in what is and what could be. Things I can't write here other than to make broad generalizations because each supporting detail is a story and a human, the very specifics that I can't share.
Did you ever read Le Guin's "The ones who walk away from Omelas"? That's what I think of when you describe the palace: a society of happy, beautiful, wealthy people whose lifestyle is preserved because (in the magic of that story) in a dungeon at the bottom of the ugliest part of the city is a small child whose entire life is abuse. You cannot remove the child from the dungeon without destroying those bright, joyful lives above.
ReplyDeleteMegalomaniacs can create beauty, but it is a beauty founded on abuse of someone else.
You can read the story here if you haven't already.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that contrast in the land makes what you are seeing all the more gorgeous? I know that living where we do I forget to look at the natural beauty and become surprised by it once again when I have seen or experienced something ugly.
ReplyDeleteIs it a life's lesson to only be surprised by the contrasts...or not to be?
Maybe what you are experiencing with the mission is intense enough that you are waking up again to the beauty that can surround you, or maybe you have always been an intense enough person that you see the beauty that most of us miss in our daily humdrum.
Blessings to you Rory for reminding me to look,
Sondra