Tímarit Þjóðræknisfélags Íslendinga - 01.01.1963, Blaðsíða 92

74
TÍMARIT ÞJÓÐRÆKNISFÉLAGS ÍSLENDINGA
Worm (sad): Was everything that
happened in the vegetable garden
real?
Firefly: All of it was.
Worm: Then I must be dreaming
that I am not lame, with full sight,
in an orchard with you.
Firefly: It is real.
Worm (beside himself with joy):
Firefly, now I have found happiness.
—But how did I get here, since no-
body came with me?
Firefly: You fell asleep in the vege-
table garden and in the same mom-
ent woke up in the orchard. You
are said to be asleep in the vegetable
garden when you are awake here.
thrust her out of your mind. You
haven’t done so; that is why she is
here.
Worm: She doesn’t belong here; she
isn’t wanted here. What made her
he attractive to me in the vegetable
garden doesn’t affect me here in the
orchard. In my mind she is incor-
poreal, yet not spiritual in nature, no
doubt because she is all wrapped up
in the vegetable garden and doesn’t
even have her mind here.
Firefly: That is how most of our
daily associates are. To the extent
that they are in our minds they are
with us, but as for them they keep
their minds and whole beings else-
where.
Worm: Just as in a dream.
Firefly: In your eyes people are
what you think they are, not what
they really are.
Worm: Then there is no difference
between dream and reality—
Butterfly: When I said that every-
thing that happened in the vegetable
garden was a dream, I lied un-
intentionally and unwittingly. Most
of the wrong that people do is be-
yond their control. Nevertheless, if
they see a chance for making
amends for such wrongs, they feel
as responsible for them as for
acts which are within their control
—just as they feel obligated to cor-
rect a misstatement when they as-
certain the truth. It makes no dif-
ference, as far as their conscience is
concerned,, whether they do wrong
intentionally or untentionally. If
in some paradise they are kept
from making amends for trans-
gressions for which they know they
could atone somewhere else, that
paradise is not a place of bliss for
them but a place of torment. But a
place of bliss is one where, even
though it may be a place of torment,
they can expiate their transgres-
sions. (Starts walking; stops in front
of Worm.) Worm, you can’t ex-
perience any happiness as long as
you know that I am unhappy. And I
shall be unhappy as long as I can’t
make amends for the wrong I did to
you.
Worm: I certainly must remove any-
thing which casts a shadow over
your happiness.
Butterfly: To do so, you must re-
turn to the vegetable garden.
Firefly: Worm, you can’t get to the
vegetable garden unless you fall
asleep here and wake up there—you
are said to be asleep here when you
are awake there—but you can’t be
sure that you will wake there to con-
sciousness of yourself here. You
can’t get to the vegetable garden