We are all in search of the sky.
We each begin our individual climbs, through our individual houses.
We climb flight after flight of stairs.
Higher and higher we climb, in search of the sky.
Some of our houses have few stairs, some have many.
Some of us reach the top quickly, some labor long.
At last, each in our own ways, we reach the tops of our stairs.
We all find ourselves standing in an attic.
We stare at the ceilings of our attics, and we believe we have found the sky.
This must be the sky because we've reached the top of the stairs.
"The sky is brown and musty and dark!" some of us proclaim.
"No, the sky is white and smooth!" others protest.
Still others shout, "You are all wrong! The sky is rough and gray and cold."
Various schools of sky-ology being to emerge.
There are the broad schools of thought, upon which most agree:
...like the idea that the sky is hard and flat.
Within these broad schools, various off-shoots begin to form:
...the brown, hard, flat sky group,
...the gray, hard, flat sky group,
...and the white, hard, flat sky group.
Even within the off-shoots, there are smaller sub-groups:
...light brown sky believers and dark brown sky believers,
...the horizontal board groups and the vertical board groups.
And then there are the wacky weirdos who talk about a purple sky with green stripes.
Many spend their whole lives staring at their ceilings and arguing about who has the true sky.
But a few begin to wonder...
Why is the sky so rigid, cold, and unapproachable?
Why is the sky so confining and boxed in?
Why is the sky always out of reach?
Isn't the sky supposed to be huge and vast and full of light?
Shouldn't the sky be warm and awesome and infinite?
Hadn't they heard a legend of a sky that envelopes, surrounds, and encompasses?
They wonder some more.
They are almost afraid to ask, but finally they do:
"What if this isn't really the sky?"
They begin to look around.
A few of them find the hatchet.
There is always a hatchet, if they will only look.
Some see the hatchet, but quickly avert their eyes.
Others see the hatchet and take a few feeble swings at the ceiling, but give up and put the hatchet away.
Still others will take up the hatchet and begin to chop.
They chop and chop and chop.
Even when it is difficult.
Even when they are criticized for destroying the "true" sky.
Even when they are chastised for daring to wonder if another sky could exist.
Even they are warned that they will die if they continue.
Still they chop.
And suddenly...
They see
the sky!
A sky full of light, beauty, freedom, and space,
surrounding them,
filling the pores of their skin,
expanding throughout the universe.
They wonder how they ever could have mistaken their musty ceilings for this stunning, glowing sky.
Those ceilings that they had believed in and argued about for so long were the very things that were blocking their view of the true sky.
And they finally understand this:
Beyond all the different ceilings,
there is one sky...
the infinite,
dazzling,
real
sky.
It has been there all along.
We just have to chop through our ceilings to see it.
We each begin our individual climbs, through our individual houses.
We climb flight after flight of stairs.
Higher and higher we climb, in search of the sky.
Some of our houses have few stairs, some have many.
Some of us reach the top quickly, some labor long.
At last, each in our own ways, we reach the tops of our stairs.
We all find ourselves standing in an attic.
We stare at the ceilings of our attics, and we believe we have found the sky.
This must be the sky because we've reached the top of the stairs.
"The sky is brown and musty and dark!" some of us proclaim.
"No, the sky is white and smooth!" others protest.
Still others shout, "You are all wrong! The sky is rough and gray and cold."
Various schools of sky-ology being to emerge.
There are the broad schools of thought, upon which most agree:
...like the idea that the sky is hard and flat.
Within these broad schools, various off-shoots begin to form:
...the brown, hard, flat sky group,
...the gray, hard, flat sky group,
...and the white, hard, flat sky group.
Even within the off-shoots, there are smaller sub-groups:
...light brown sky believers and dark brown sky believers,
...the horizontal board groups and the vertical board groups.
And then there are the wacky weirdos who talk about a purple sky with green stripes.
Many spend their whole lives staring at their ceilings and arguing about who has the true sky.
But a few begin to wonder...
Why is the sky so rigid, cold, and unapproachable?
Why is the sky so confining and boxed in?
Why is the sky always out of reach?
Isn't the sky supposed to be huge and vast and full of light?
Shouldn't the sky be warm and awesome and infinite?
Hadn't they heard a legend of a sky that envelopes, surrounds, and encompasses?
They wonder some more.
They are almost afraid to ask, but finally they do:
"What if this isn't really the sky?"
They begin to look around.
A few of them find the hatchet.
There is always a hatchet, if they will only look.
Some see the hatchet, but quickly avert their eyes.
Others see the hatchet and take a few feeble swings at the ceiling, but give up and put the hatchet away.
Still others will take up the hatchet and begin to chop.
They chop and chop and chop.
Even when it is difficult.
Even when they are criticized for destroying the "true" sky.
Even when they are chastised for daring to wonder if another sky could exist.
Even they are warned that they will die if they continue.
Still they chop.
And suddenly...
They see
the sky!
A sky full of light, beauty, freedom, and space,
surrounding them,
filling the pores of their skin,
expanding throughout the universe.
They wonder how they ever could have mistaken their musty ceilings for this stunning, glowing sky.
Those ceilings that they had believed in and argued about for so long were the very things that were blocking their view of the true sky.
And they finally understand this:
Beyond all the different ceilings,
there is one sky...
the infinite,
dazzling,
real
sky.
It has been there all along.
We just have to chop through our ceilings to see it.
