A Window, a Curtain or a Highway to Nowhere?

                             A Window, a Curtain or a Highway to Nowhere?

       Night falls like a dark curtain across the rear window of the bungalow that faces onto our deck. On the surface, the color of the night seems to shield all that happens across the silent lake beyond from discovery by any observing it.

      However, at first, we, as casual observers, have no idea how deeply the blanket of darkness covers the vaults that cover our dreams, or even nightmares, or if they suddenly will sprung to life beneath the surface of the lake and beyond the borders of that deck by our overly-vivid imaginations.

      Will the manifestations of our secret fears, unfulfilled ambitions or crushed life goals emerge from the primordial ooz which sits only feet from this window?

      Or will the dreariness suddenly give way to the bright, white light of positive adventures and astounding accomplishments to come?

      Answers to some of the mysteries reveal themselves the next night, as the waters of the lake reflect back the joys of childhood experiences alive with play and leading into an adolescence filled with scholarship, romance and positive achievements bringing forth a successful and rewarding life.

      Then, rising up from beneath the body of the water’s surface and attacking the window and each of our senses, we silently view each chapter of the lake’s continuing story and our own, bringing our fears to life, leaving only the scars of a sleepless night in its dreadful wake.

      Through the window we casual observers most often see darkness, with the curtain most often refusing to pull back its revelations and cloaking what truly and realistically up to that time has existed only in our minds.

       Darkness does not always predominate however, sometimes replaced by the bright glow of knowledge, hope and positivity.

       We imagine ourselves forcing the curtain to pull back, opening the window and diving into the lake to make a total exploration of its most hidden depths.

        But will the darkness easily yield to open its secrets to our prying eyes and fingertips, or will it refuse to allow its secrets to spray out of the darkness?

       If we do manage to peel back the layers, will we then find complete solutions to the mysteries hidden in the darkness? Or will we discover only partial satisfaction? Will we like what we discover or will we wish to bury it again, with both our nighttime and daylight fears?

      Do we actually have any idea of the true depths of our fears and hopes hidden deep within the darkness of the night, beneath the lakes upon which we reside or in the recesses of what those, who, in actuality, possess limited knowledge call the human mind?

     For centuries humankind has attempted to explore the recesses of the minds of its members. Many have succeeded, at least partially, but have they gone to the true depths of what they wish to bring forth?

     We hope not to drown neath the surface of the darkness of our own world or the black curtain of other worlds as we dig deeper into unexplored territory.

     We also wish not to awaken sleeping giants whose only mission in life is to exterminate those who get too close to that which they have closely guarded for so long.

     If we successfully break down these barriers will we unlock the information needed to bring the ultimate enhancement to ourselves, to our fellow creatures, to our world?

     Or will we unleash more dark forces bent on the destruction of our global brothers and sisters and all we hold dear?

    Darkness most often brings sleep and the calming, tranquility and restorative forces that supposedly ultimately bring real benefit to the human mind.

     However, for some, darkness only intensifies the battles within the human psyche begun with the first hint of light in a so-called hopeful new day.

    What if the opening of the curtain drawn over the window only brings a continuation, not an end to the battle?

    After all, we never know from one night to the next, whether demons that started to seek our destruction the first night will come back to continue the attack or dissolve so a new battle may begin.

     Perhaps we put too much stock in the theories of some who have no better control of our mental demons than we ourselves have.

     Maybe we allow darkness to have too much control over our minds, our lives and our reactions to the future. Darkness itself may not be that which we should fear but what we should fear most is the power we abdicate over ourselves and our world in our battle with that which enters our lives once the sun begins to set, literally and figuratively.

     The battle between light and darkness probably will continue until the end of each of our individual eternities and the key to victory most likely lies with those able to chart their own individual courses free from dependence on either of the two combatants.

      Maybe remaining within the moment will provide the secret weapon leading each of us to victory, but we have to make sure we remain in a moment most advantageous to ourselves.

     Meditation may lead us where we want, but we have to make sure the mind-path it provides brings us to the Nirvana we seek and not deeper into that which will result in mental defeat.

     No absolute guarantees will emerge from any darkness we view through whatever window we choose in the middle of the night, and the coming of light may not bring all of what we seek.

     However, by not attempting victory in either sphere we allow the full force of defeat to win the battle, and we should find this totally unacceptable.

      The ultimate conclusion may mean that this entire exercise has taken us through a complete detour through the world of psychobabble when all we have been seeking to do was write a simple story of a character looking out a window in the middle of the night.

     Well, did I get to you or has my own writing actually trapped me?