The Keystone

Arches
in the direction of
well-being are difficult arches
to engineer.
There
is a great number
of elements that goes into a strong
arch, an arch which will stand the many tests
of time, weather the storms, and be
only stronger for it,
more beautiful,
in fact,
if not simply
for having stood
so long, against so many odds.
Building upwards from the foundations,
any arch builder must begin with
those elements which are
absolutely essential--
strong, simple
stones
to hold the
weight of the whole
portal. In the middle, the
builder might consider how his
threshold will appear to those who might
happen through it, how it will
be seen from either side, from
within, from without.
Nearing the
top,
building each
level soundly, wisely on the
courses which have come before,
the choosing of stones becomes more
refined, more precise, more targeted than at
the beginning. Until there is only
one piece left, the primary
piece, the one piece
which, if taken
away, would
make the
whole
affair tumble
down like so many
autumn leaves. In choosing
that last stone, that keystone, the arch
builder, the builder of well-being, the builder
of life, must pick keenly, and, above all, must resolve,
once and for all, to make peace, to end all
the warring, within and without, to
carefully set the last piece and
remain there with it, as if
in a dream, knowing
that what does
stand strong
through
the many, difficult
tests of time does, really,
become more beautiful just
for still standing
strong.
My own
keystone involved
accepting that I am, in fact,
the hopeless romantic I thought
I was when I was young, and that I'm
not looking for a fight, or an
argument, or anything
more or less
than love.

(2006)