Papa walked into the turret room, as Kyra called it, an eight sided addition he had built with calloused hands and sweaty brow on the rear left side of the villa, facing the more rugged coastline. The room had eight sides, eight windows and between the windows, eight mirrors. To casual visitors, the room was a shrine to the eight precepts, and in so much as it was told, it was true. But what is truth, Papa would often say, but a word, a raft we put into the river of all that is. Rafts come and go, and we live not for the raft, for the river is truth and life and love and the river flows and moves and lives and dabbles not in labels and opinions and concepts.
For a small child, the turret room was a magical place with its mirrors and windows—Kyra’s favorite place on the whole estate. As she grew, so did the magic and if she were not on the beach she could be found reading in the turret, or, as Papa discovered many times, standing in the center of the room in wakeful meditation.
“Kyra,” whispered Papa, sticking his head through the door, “may I come in?”
Seemingly without effort, Kyra pirouetted with arms outstretched, her coal black mane catching the Hynerian sun is shades of gray and blue with the luster of youth, her porcelain white skin, almost too white, shinning with eyes limpid, bright and calmly reflective. “My dear Papa, state your intention and be quick. Hesitation is the mark of shadows dark, of purpose complicated.”
Papa laughed. “My purpose, my child, is to marvel at the gift of you and to wonder what vistas you will see beyond my ability to imagine. Yet, we must be careful of conceit. Look around the room.”
Kyra did. Eight mirrors, eight views, each slightly different and even the same mirror never gave back what it offered before. She had heard it before and knew she was about to hear it again. Papa was nothing if not consistent in his belief that repetition was the mother of all teaching, so she cut him off. “And we never look into the same mirror twice.”
“Exactly!” exclaimed Papa.
+Tell me more about these mirrors.+
Commentary: The Turret
Categories: Story, Papa, Kyra
24 comments:
For readers new to the story, the "+" notations surrounding dialouge is taking place telepathically. So, as we have seen in the last two chapters, someone is communicating with Kyra. ;-)
Simplicity without complication... be true, but to all not just oneself. Love yourself, but not to the point of forgetting others.
Childhood is a wonderful place if given a chance to grow and be nutured. How lucky Kyra is to have her Papa, in presence or merely in memory.
Inside, the relationship between Kyra and Papa is what started this story, and still is, in my mind, the center upon which all else revolves. :-)
I can see the philosophy in Papa and the eight mirror concept. More like you, eh?
In this chapter I am a bit of Papa and a bit of Kyra--teacher and student all wrapped into one, but then again, who is to say that the two are not one, for what is a teacher without a student and what is a student without a teacher. ;-)
This chapter, and I need to do audio to explain, but this chapter and the mirrors are a metaphor for the people we meet that tell us more about ourselves than we can ever see without them. I've got to run some errands, but as soon as I can, I'll do some audio commentary to better explain. Heck, might just do it now. LMAO!
Nice to hear the voice and the logic behind it.
Can you tell, that as a child I spent way too much time talking to myself? LOL
Ahhh, how nice it was to hear your voice again. :-)
Reflections, how we see ourselves compared to how others see us, destined always to be a subject of fascination. Wonderful, exploratory and explanatory commentary. :-)
With regard to how we look at ourselves, the phychological and physical would appear to parallel one another, much as you mentioned with the eyes, we can only look at parts of ourselves at any given time, never able to stand apart and take a look at the whole, and even as we look they are changing.
If we are able to recognize something as true about ourselves, were we then not always aware of its existance, but for one reason or another we failed to acknowledge it. Much rarer for us to simply not see something than it is to not want to see it.
Quite simply in awe of how you brought this concept to life through the creation of an octagonal, windowed, mirrored room. Who else would have thought of such a thing or been able to work it this way.
Open doors with glorious views,
may well be back to VD all over this one a little later tonight.
Csn you tell that I want to hear more of that voice?
ugh.. can... see what I mean?
Inside, if you click on the link next to the word commentary, it will take you to my Gabcast homepage where all the recent audio can be enjoyed. I say recent since I was using Audioblogger originally and they went out of business and those audio links no longer work. You'll have to request those manually. ;-)
Not what I meant... but i understand now.
Sunshine, this is a concept I've had in my head for a long time. I'll never forget when a child once said I was a skinny legged man. I thought the kid was insane because I had always seen my legs as quite nice. Well, after she made that comment, I started looking at other mens legs--not exactly something I had done before. And you know what? She was right. In comparison, on average, my legs are smaller than most. I was shocked to discover this and it forever changed that view. I could list example after example like this, but the point is, I've rarely had someone make one of these observations, that once I recovered from my defensiveness, that I didn't acknowledge that there was some truth to what they said. Now, what I find interesting is, I tend to believe those things said that are negative and discount those things that are positive. Still, way too hard on myself, but at least I feel I have a greater awareness than before and I'm more open to good things and accepting that they might be true as opposed to someone just being nice.
So, the room is octagonal. Round. 360 degrees to reflect a full view, from all angles. Each giving us some insight, each different. Many times we only want to look in the mirrors that flatter us and ignore the ones that perhaps educate us the most. This is what Papa is trying to instill in Kyra. Openness of Mind. A non-judgmental mind. A mind that sees good and bad as impostors equal in deception. He warns her against conceit, pride, the blinders of ego--and so the room is a place to meditate on these matters, a constant reminder of the eight precepts, that we trade in words and views and thoughts and concepts and that we must not lose sight of the monopoly money that is necessary to function in society.
As always, your kind words are deeply appreciated. :-)
Inside, I knew what you meant. ;-)
Move a little closer to my side of town.. the sheets are getting warmed up...
That would be nice. :-)
Wouldn't it?
Yes, I think it would.
Why does love from a stranger scare people? Is it so hard to believe that there are people that just care and do not want anything in return for their caring?
I'm not sure I know the answer to that question. And I suppose it goes without saying, I can only speak for myself. I think their are several factors. One is past hurt, the memory and pain that one does not want to experience again. Two is, perhaps, a sense of jadedness. For example, I've been blogging for over two years and I've seen many "friends" come and go. Some for a very brief time and others for a little longer but my heart aches each time a relationship is formed and then, for no explicable reason, is ended. And so, when a new friend comes along, well, their is wonder, a wonder if they are real, a wonder if they will come back again tomorrow; and so the heart guards itself, like soldiers do when they seek not the name of replacements for fear of becoming attached to those most likely not to make it. Third, I would say, is a factor of time. Good things take time, I think. I've seen too many relationships start fast and end fast. I'm not going anywhere and neither is this blog, so I have time to watch the grass grow. Fourth, maybe, is fear and ignorance. You could call it a fear of what is not known. Early in a relationship, what is not known is always much greater than what is. I see it all the time. People ask me questions, because they want to increase what they know about me versus what they don't. Takes time to alter the scales, to move from a closed and guarded heart to an open one.
All I know to say is this. My heart is open. I am not perfect. I will make mistakes. But I will never willingly hurt another. Still, I know, in ignorance I will cause pain. And I know that I will seek and give forgiveness in unconditional measure. I know not what else to say other than I am here and I am open to relationship.
LMAO. Just do a global cut and replace of every "their" with "there" in the comment above. I'm almost embarrassed to say how many years I spent at uni. shakes head and walks away
Ah, a Kyra/Papa exchange. They are personal favorites of mine. There is so much wisdom that need so few words.
Deb, I wish I could go to Valla and spend the summer with Papa and Kyra, in part for Papa and in part for Kyra. My fear is I would never come back. ;-)
As always, so nice to see you stopping by Deb. Your comments are most appreciated. Thank you.
It is almost with a panic when I "wake up" and rush back to visit your blog & everyone of significance to me in the blog world. Reminds me of when I was a child and I got lost at 6 Flags, that kind of panic. How odd that is to feel that way about people I've never met. Memory loss causes that kind of panic. I felt comforted when I read your words in the comments, "I'm not going anywhere and neither is this blog"
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