Hadi Atallah

It was known among the wolves; among the mountain gatherers; it was known in the ancient temple, for the shamans of the forest whispered about her. And the morning of that day a canoe lay on the riverbank, too many things to question when Colossus went to rescue a war. There was no self-consciousness about his joining with his twin flame, Colossi. And as he walked toward her temple the crowd grew behind him. Then she heard the tramp of feet of the approaching crowd, and her visions grew faster and faster.

“No one has ever seen such a war,” she said. “It is large and clumsy.”

Colossus’ face grew dark and dangerous. “It is worth your diligence.”

And Colossi felt a little tremor of euphoria. “What is diligence?”

“I have heard fathers tell of it. But some may say that it goes against religion. The wisdom of the ages speaks of oneness. Through diligence and self-control, we can ascend to the unity, realizing our true unfoldment as a natural process of the astral, transcending to the ether. In this process lies strength and will, for to know this process is to possess the key to diligence.”

The crowd then whispered together. The war was large, but it had strange tales from foreign lands. War was comparative wealth to men after all, men who were indeed not wealthy at all. And everyone considered their part in the picture.