Black & White

Things hardly ever, are they?

Look to the Citadel, and you will see it a house divided. Some will say, the evil that men do lives on after them; some will say the good is oft enurned in the ashes (since there is now not much room for burials). There are many opinions, and in a constituency so varied, surely some will be disappointed.

But we must have faith in the vision of the hero who started the endeavour. If it is indeed consecrated work, no mere human can desecrate it; if it is indeed truth and light, nothing will defeat it. As a wise man said to me today, "It may take time, but the Citadel will be stronger for it."

O you who turn the wheel and look to windward, remember that the ocean may be red with blood, and the wine-dark sea may pull us all into its depths — but somewhere, the sky is shining and the sun is blue, and the sea is crystalline in clarity. Although much has been lost and there is yet more to lose, there is also much that has yet to come to pass.

So to my friends who look upon the ending of an era, think about the other words of Browning's Rabbi ben Ezra:

Trust God, see all, nor be afraid!