Paradise Now

"Here is an unspeakable secret: paradise is all around us and we do not understand it. 

It is wide open. The sword is taken away, but we do not know it: 

we are off 'one to his farm and the other to his merchandise.' 

Lights on. Clocks ticking. Thermostats working. Stoves cooking. 

Electric shavers filling radios with static. 

"Wisdom," cries the dawn deacon, but we do not attend."

- Thomas Merton

Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander