“Kinship, old acquaintance, and friendship seize our imagination and get it passionately involved for the moment, according to their character; but the turn is so quick that it escapes us.” These souls that we create are just as swayed by our moods and passions as our bodies.
We live in an age of endless distraction, and it is difficult to place attention on where it best resides moment to moment. How quickly we forget to call back a loved one when another task awaits us. Our reading sits dormant as another fragment wins the joust for our momentary gaze.
How can we keep from becoming nothing more than the bits, the tattered patches of quilts, collecting only for a moment then scattering again, shape shifting at will? How can we be loved when we ration certain shapes for some, different for others? If we happen upon one we like best, do we snap its photo and preserve it in time, or let it slip away like all the others?
Finding a general shape, even one that has its own tidal forces, is our ultimate life’s work.