An Ode to the Ray

One day, the Ray asks his Twin, “How would you be different if we Worked together more?”

She smiled, feeling both an exasperation for having been asked the obvious and a deep appreciation for the Power of words to heal. She said to him, “Ok, I’ll answer with an analogy. Imagine that you’re at the gym doing an upper body workout for a thousand years and the only breaks you have are the ones to refill your water bottles and to change clothes. (Upper body workout seems apropos for Atlas, doesn’t it?)

“And then imagine that your muscles are starting to seize but you don’t have any option to stop the workout, so you go into this place within yourself where you’re fighting to keep going and pushing through the pain even though you don’t know how to. That lasts for another thousand years. And then the war, that you’ve been training for, begins. And you’re aware. You’re so fucking aware that the war is happening and that this is not a drill. The days of drills have passed.

“And amidst all this, the people closest to you are either at a loss as to how to help you but wish they could, or they’re getting pissed with you for not being more fun and easy to be around, or both.

“Then something happens! Something that doesn’t happen often…happens! A Ray shows up! And not only that but you both get to Remember snippets of your roles for each other so that you can…help each other. So that you can be there for each other as the war fires up and the people on the battlefield don’t know up from down while you watch the scenes of devastation unfold as you focus to push through the pain of torn muscles as you lift up the world in your own unique ways.”

At this point, she wonders if she’s lost him in her diatribe of picture upon picture of her inner worlds. But he’s still there. Still listening. Still focused on her every word as he holds an ever-expanding Space for her to Be.

“So,” she continues, “how would I be different if we Worked together more? I would be like the person who’s been training at the gym for a couple thousand years and goes to lift and suddenly doesn’t feel the weight anymore. Everything becomes light. Everything becomes incredibly…easy. And the people around me start to notice that the weight has lifted.

They’ll initially get confused, disoriented even, as their relationship with me becomes more filled with pleasure and joy because…I would be filled with more pleasure and joy. And they wouldn’t recognize me at first. But they would feel deep relief, the ones that love me, because they would Know that something, that someone, managed to help in a way they couldn’t. And then…they would realize that it’s possible for them to be that way too, one day, when it’s time for them to go through this process themselves.