Out of the Underworld
Excerpts from Creative Obsession, by Paul Hunt (www.TemescalPublishing.com) © Temescal Literary Trust
No Exit
Suppose you realized suddenly that you were buried inside a small, dark vault under a 200-foot mudslide. You have maybe a six or an eight-hour air supply, assuming the walls of the vault don’t cave-in first. In no uncertain terms, there is absolutely no hope for getting out alive. An unseen, unstoppable clock begins ticking away the last minutes and hours of your life.
Now cast your fate. You have two choices: (1) Remain calm, and then die. (2) Do something, and then die.
The first choice defers the unpleasantries. It ensures tranquility, and it upholds precious dignities. Who would reproach our sisters and brothers, who in the throes of grief and mortal terror, seek a path to inner peace? Who would wish to disprove another person’s quiet prayer for eternal salvation? The first choice engenders the great religious and mystic movements. It was the monumental choice of Orpheus, Ezekiel, Philo, and Paul. It is the vision and choice made possible through faith, hope, and blessed mercy.
But whenever these timeless qualities have been nurtured and transfigured, under our most primordial affections, into a semblance of wisdom, courage, and love, a vision of the vault becomes a commandment to act. A sublime imperative comes into effect — it is a perversion to squander away the last hours. It is a grotesque waste to disregard the inevitable, fleeting choices which unfold during life. We confront voracious, world-effacing desires for ever more engaging and enduring work. We are shaken from our hallucinations and stupors by life’s acute limitation, with the understanding that a person lives and thrives, or does not, through all that is perceived and created, and in the end, by what got done.
What will you do then, down in the vault?... Start digging — what the hell. Scratch an epitaph into the wall. Tremble and laugh…
Passion’s Passage
Through it all, you’re back on the road at the edge of the world, traversing an endlessly edgeless globe—fervently resolved to know what it’s like. You need the earthy people, the hidden byways, and distant horizons, desiring without end, to understand how it feels (how everything feels), taking your turn, seeing it all, not missing your chance, ever.
It’s hard, sometimes, so what. For you it’s all a gift, another breath of life, more free air! You crave the unsettling possibilities. You want this to be perfect, to be brilliant, awesome, unbelievable, and then, to get away again, to overcome, and to recover, maintaining your desire and once more, regaining the edge. Always another venture, a different place to be. A new city, a strange country, one more unimaginable landscape. You know that someday you’ll stop, and then, your story is over — it’s the next-to-the-last chapter, the book is closing — time spins faster, and you’re waiting for nothingness! No! Don’t stop! Not you. No way.