TheDreamstersUnion

(Tuesday, June 6, 2023)

I opened my old book “The Prophet.” to page 31, which talks about the idea of Houses:

Then a mason came forth and said: Speak to us of Houses.

And he answered and said:

Build of your imaginings a bower in the wilderness ere you build a house within city walls.

For even as you have home-comings in your twilight, so has the wanderer in you, the ever distant and alone.

Your house is your larger body.

It grows in the sun and sleeps in the stillness of night; and it is not dreamless. Does not your house dream? and dreaming, leave the city for grove or hill-top?

Your house shall not be an anchor but a mast.

It shall not be a glistening film that covers a wound, but an eyelid that guards the eye.

You shall not fold your wings that you may pass through doors, nor bend your heads that they strike not against a ceiling, nor fear to breathe lest walls should crack and fall down.

You shall not dwell in tombs made by the dead for the living.

And though of magnificence and splendour, your house shall not hold your secret nor shelter your longing.

For that which is boundless in your abides in the mansion of the sky, whose door is the morning mist, and whose windows are the songs and the silences of night.

I am with Denise. She drives us to an old cathedral which is really two cathedrals that are attached to each other. She had read about them. We go in. The cathedrals are huge and open to each other. They are being renovated. There may be a few workers around, but they are not noticeable. I have forgotten my camera and feel disappointed. However, I have my phone and will take photos with it. I see a huge, headless statue at the end of the second cathedral. It is brown. The inside of the cathedrals is white.

Denise and I talk to a nun. She is dressed in street clothes. She is in charge of the school associated with the cathedrals. She says the teachers have just had a meeting. The school is a recent addition to the cathedrals. Denise talks with the nun. I stand by. Denise tells us how the other day she was riding horses with her two nephews. Denise and her nephews got separated, but she knew a short cut and they reconnected. They were riding near the cathedrals. I picture them galloping and enjoying themselves.

I can tell that Denise is interested in teaching at the cathedral school. I suggest she gives the nun her card. She does, though, she is not comfortable giving her the one she has. It is more “commercial”, brightly colored with some portraits and flowers.