Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
“But hasn't everything already been said?” Of course not. Until we hear or see or read
your
version of this fierce and joyful world, there is still more to be said. Each of us looks
upon the sunset with a slightly different eye.
All of us long for a rich, participatory life. We all have the same recurrent longing to
break down our defenses, to be able to give and receive our gifts. When we compose a piece
of music or shape a lump of clay into something we find interesting, we finally wriggle out
of the straitjacket and come away shouting, “Yes, yes, yes!”
Alexander Papaderos, who started a monastery and peace center on the island of Crete,
carries a piece of a broken mirror in his wallet. When he was a small boy, he found the broken
mirror next to a motorcycle that someone had wrecked and then abandoned along a road near
his small village. He spent hours trying to put the mirror back together. Unfortunately, some
of the pieces were missing, so he had little choice but to give up—but not before plucking out
the biggest piece, which he rubbed against a rock until it was smooth and round. Papaderos
spent much of his childhood playing with that piece of mirror. He discovered that when he
held it just right, he could shine the sun's light into the dark, lighting up unknown cracks and
crevices.
That's what this chapter is all about. Your piece of the mirror is just a fragment. Nobody
knows for sure how big and vast “the whole” really is. But if you take your small piece and
hold it just right, you can shine light into the world's dark places.
The choice is yours. You can use your mirror to shine light. Or you can keep it in your
wallet. But the mirror will never be whole without you.
