“But what does it mean?”
“Well, what does it make you feel?”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“I know.”
“It must mean something.”
“Why do you have to define everything? Just look at it – doesn’t it make you feel?”
“It makes me feel like I want to know what it means!”
“Well – isn’t that an emotion?”
“…Pretty sure it’s not.”
“Wanting is an emotion.”
“Is wanting to stab yourself in the eye an emotion?”
“That might be an autonomic response to a greater emotion.”
“Just tell me what it means. … Please?”
“You think you want to know, but you don’t. Everyone thinks they want the mysteries of the universe explained. We slave away for centuries to answer burning questions, and then we complain that we’ve ruined magic – that there’s no more enchantment in the world. We somehow fail to see the enduring mystery of the complexity that is science. How is a burning ball of gas whose light has died a million years ago any less beautiful and awe-inspiring than a window into the souls of the dead, or the ashes of a hundred heroes scattered across the sky?”
“How did we get from A to B?”
“You’re not following?”
“Not even a little.”
“You say you want to know.”
“Yeah.”
“But you don’t.”
“But I do.”
“That’s my point – you don’t.”
“Don’t tell me what I think!”
“You think wrong. You think you want to see the entrails, the bloody inner workings, but it will leave you heaving and, ultimately, empty.”
“Just tell me what the fucking painting is about!!”
“Don’t get mad.”
“I am going to strangle you.”
“The rabbit is painting the fox – it’s the architect of its own misfortune. All of the things that we think hunt us in the night are of our own making. Stark blue and white, as real – maybe even more real – than the rabbit itself. Fear is outside of us, greater than us, but created by us. We made it, but once loosed we can no longer control it.”
“… I don’t get it.”
“There’s a pretty tree made of rainbows?”
“Now you’re just being an ass.”
“What does it make you think?”
“I don’t know – now I feel stupid – I thought it was, like, playing with the fox. Like, the fox was a gerbil in a ball or something.”
“You’re right.”
“But you just said it was about fear.”
“It is.”
“So I was wrong!”
“You really don’t get how this works, do you?”
“My autonomic impulses are flaring again…”
“Let’s start at the beginning. What does it make you feel?…”
.
Image courtesy of April Milne. April is a fantastic illustrator and fine artist. See her work at her website, or check her out on Our Contributors Page.