Something shifted noiselessly through the shadows. Something became the shadows, then relinquished their forms when a pair of eyes latched on and signaled the nerves to reach out a shaky hand to scare the witness awake. Something went unnameable and unnoticed, puppeting its effects into chain-link fences and reaction formations. Something loomed up the size of billboards and scuttled along under car tires. Something filled the cracks in seamless veneers and snaked its way into the chinks of the armor. Something “Hey-Hey-Hey”ed the pop stations and paid-paid-paid the culture-war centurions. Something slinked along at the bathroom door of a drunken President, overwhelmed and weeping. Something fought in the online pit bull rings and spat hatred at the gay soldiers. Something cranked out the merchandise and trampled the competition. Something tazed the old ladies and swallowed the extra Perkoset.

There was indeed an Enemy at Large, but it was not the “diabiological plot” for which the news stations were already making up cutesie names. It was not the crazy weather patterns nor the thousands of pointing fingers. It was not the Leftist Extremists, and it was not the Anti-Choice Nutjobs. It was not the Carters nor the Clintons, not the Kardashians nor the Cosbys, not the Jester nor Anonymous.

It was a Shadow, the so-called monster of the vast dark inside which all villains and goblins were conceived.

It was a Shadow, a shape cast upon a surface, made by the dance of whatever exists between the Light and a Wall.

As with anything perceivable on the inner screens of consciousness: it was always an Inside Job.

Beau DuPont awakened from an undeniably wakeful sleep to write down these words:

“all is one, within which light & shadow play. there is shadow, and we are present with it. when it is not a dark that we are afraid to go into, it ceases to be a monster invented to threaten us from inside our closets and under our beds. it is simply the natural effect of sunlight, candlelight, fire, casting its warmth on the reflective side of whatever it touches; the other side is dark, and the shadow that lengthens from its body is a measure of the space it holds.” [1]

 

 

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1. In case it’s been a while, have a moment.