They sat in the restaurant counting little cakes and watching themselves in the reflection of the spoons.
"This is oppulent," gushed Basil.
"Do you mean opulent?" She asked.
"YES," came his enthusiastic reply.
It was too much. The delicacies, the clanging dishes of the servers, the gold ceiling, chandeliers, people.
"Are these people gold?" She asked, aghast.
"They only look that way because we are dreaming," Basil explained.
She was certain they weren't dreaming. In fact, she was writing this down, word by word and bird by bird.
"Birds?" He exclaimed.
She tried to distract him.
"A lot has changed since you were here before," she said. "There is freedom now."
He looked around at the pale, round people hunched over their food and strange rectangles, staring into nothing, eating with great noise but otherwise silent. He glanced out the window for a long moment at their modes of transportation, giant squares and strange shapes rushing in all directions, their bleak, by his standards, buildings, and counted the number of them alone on their journey.
He replied with a sigh, "They are not free. The whole world is chained to itself and nothing else."
They sat in the restaurant counting cakes. Basil also counted the people.
"What are we doing here?" He finally asked. "We should be outside speaking the simple words to everyone we meet."
"The simple words?" She wondered aloud.
"Look up," he responded, incredulous that she didn't know.
"Can we just tell the people in here to look up?"
"No," he leaned in, "They will look up and see a gold ceiling and think all is well. They will be distracted by what holds them in. It is very deceptive."
"How do you know this?" She asked him.
"I am a fool," he explained.
Basil, Fool for Christ:
https://storiesofsimcha.blogspot.com/2018/12/st-basils-cathedral.html
Very introspective
ReplyDeleteThey will be distracted by what holds them in. It is very deceptive." Amen to that. I'll be checking for my distractions today... :)
ReplyDeleteWow, what a story about Basil! I knew none of this. Do you know how long he lived and how he died?
ReplyDeleteHe lived from 1468-1552 or 1557. I don't know what he died of, but he was in his 80's.
DeleteFor some reason this kind of went over my head just words that made little sense maybe it is the pain in my head causing things to not sink in
ReplyDeleteOooh! This was really good. Basils last statement here is so wise.
ReplyDeleteThank you, dear Sandi!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting...I need to understand where this is coming from better. Who is Basil? It was a very unique and thought provoking story. Thank you for sharing it with us.
ReplyDeleteSee the link at the bottom to a post about St. Basil. :)
DeleteAlso the post before this one.
DeleteExcellent!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for introducing us to the Saints.
ReplyDeleteGod bless, Sandi.
Bravo! Excellent work!
ReplyDeleteHi Sandi, a very interesting story about this man. God bless.
ReplyDeleteThoughtful story
ReplyDeleteWow, breathtaking ..I get it...thank you and Look Up!
ReplyDeleteSue
P.S. about my latest blog post. Hubby and I were walking down the "main street" of a very small town near us. The town is pretty much dead. We passed a thrift and antique store. This was a side window all broken and dusty. I just instantly thought photo op! The oddness of the scene just begged to be photographed.
ReplyDeleteSue
Amazing. Regine
ReplyDeleteyou are always teaching me something. thank you so kindly. i love that. i know as we age we think ... are we still learning? so cool. ( ;
ReplyDeletethose shiny objects that distract us from the truth
ReplyDeleteThank you Sandi, I enjoyed this and the one at the end of the link. Bookmarking this so that I can read again.
ReplyDeleteThanks. There's another one just before this.
DeleteThis is a very important lesson.
ReplyDeleteHave a good week.
I enjoyed reading this, but feel a little lost. I'm now going to read the link and your previous post so I know who Basil is.
ReplyDelete