person is harmed by it—and he can stop being harmed as
soon as he decides to.
- Other people’s wills are as independent of mine as their
breath and bodies. We may exist for the sake of one another,
but our will rules its own domain. Otherwise the harm they
do would cause harm to me. Which is not what God intended
—for my happiness to rest with someone else. - We speak of the sun’s light as “pouring down on us,” as
“pouring over us” in all directions. Yet it’s never poured out.
Because it doesn’t really pour; it extends. Its beams (aktai)
get their name from their extension (ekteinesthai).
To see the nature of a sunbeam, look at light as it falls
through a narrow opening into a dark room. It extends in a
straight line, striking any solid object that stands in its way
and blocks the space beyond it. There it remains—not
vanishing, or falling away.
That’s what the outpouring—the diffusion—of thought
should be like: not emptied out, but extended. And not
striking at obstacles with fury and violence, or falling away
before them, but holding its ground and illuminating what
receives it.
What doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness.