Wendell Berry
You will be walking some night in
the comfortable dark of your yard
and suddenly a great
light will shine round about you,
and behind you will be
a wall you never saw before.
It will be clear to you suddenly that you were about
to escape, and that you are guilty:`
You misread the complex instructions, you are not a
member, you lost your card or never had one.
And you
will know that they have been there all along,
and there
eyes are on your letters and books (blogs), and their
hands in your pockets,
their ears wired to your bed. Though you have done nothing shameful, they will want you to be ashamed.
They will want you to kneel and weep and say you should have been like them.
And once you say you are ashamed, reading the pages
they hold out to you,
then such light you have made in your history will
leave you. They will no longer need to pursue you.
You
will pursue them, begging forgiveness. They will not
forgive you. There is no power against them.
It is only candor that is aloof from them, only an inward clarity, unashamed, that they cannot reach. Be ready.
When their light has picked you out and their questions are asked, say to them:`
"I am not ashamed."
A sure horizon will come around you.
The heron will begin his evening flight from the hilltop.