Across in the Research

As the child of history and reason, Revolution is the offspring of linear, successive, and unrepeatable time. But as the child of myth, it moves in cyclical time, like the stars and the seasons. The nature of Revolution, then, is dual. We cannot think it except by separating its two elements and discarding the mythic as a foreign body - and we cannot live it except by uniting them. We think it as a phenomenon foreseen by reason; we live it as a mystery. The fascination of revolution lies in this enigma.

-Octavio Paz in The Other Voice: Essays on Modern Poetry

Magical Realism

...but I think it's to ask you, if you could do anything you wanted...if you could have a wish....

And you're the kind of man who could grant me that wish?

I don't know. I'm just asking.

You know, I never got to bat in the major leagues. I'd have liked to have had that chance, just once...to stare down a big-league pitcher. Stare him down, then just as he goes into his windup, wink. Make him think you know something he doesn't. That's what I wish for. The chance to squint at a sky so blue that it hurts your eyes to look at it. To feel the tingle in your arms as you connect with the ball. To run the bases, stretch a double into a triple... ...and flop face first into third. Wrap your arms around the bag. That's my wish. Is there enough magic out there in the moonlight... ...to make this dream come true?

What would you say if I said yes?

It's Money They Have and Peace They Lack

"Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come."

-James Earl Jones playing Terence Man in Field of Dreams