Page 109 - The Irony Board

Into the Cosmos

You can wait
For authority
To materialize,
But it’s not
In the spirit of things.

Here Gluckman explains the motivation behind mysticism: the
need for an overpowering certainty in facing life. Two figures of
speech combine in this piece to criticize that human desire. In a
literal reading of “materialize” and “spirit,” those idioms convey the
pointlessness of expecting metaphysical help with anguishing
decisions and mortal terror. The “physical world” cannot manifest
moral imperatives from the “spirit world,” no matter how long one
waits.

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