The darkness kills us. Many great men have suffered for the sake of the darkness. As the French philosopher Camus has said, “Suicide is the problem.” The darkness eventually suffocates any one of us who cannot either find an intellectual or emotional sedative or who cannot legitimately counter it.
The legitimate counter of darkness requires courage, but courage is not enough. Such courage can only be sustained by a transfusion of power that transforms courage into victory. Courage is never a guarantee of victory, but it is often essential to it.
For me, beauty is the antidote to my suffering. I have discovered, as I have aged, that the horror of the darkness is greater than even I have conceived. But, wonder of wonders, I have also discovered that the beauty is so fantastical as to justify my struggle for every single breath. If I have committed many great errors, indeed, sins against my soul, perhaps the greatest is my failure to apprehend the true beauty around me.
