Chapter 292: Hark the Herald

If I got rid of my demons, I'd lose my angels.

Tennesse Williams, Conversations

with Tennesse Williams

Saint Anthony said, in his solitude, he sometimes

encountered devils who looked like angels,

and other times he found angels who looked like

devils. When asked how he could tell the

difference, the saint said that you can only tell

which is which by the way you feel after the

creature has left your company.

Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

Nobody's perfect.

We're all just one step up from the beasts

and one step down from angels.

Jeannette Walls, Half Broke Horses

I have need of angels. 

Enough hell has swallowed me

for too many years.

But finally understand this--I have burned

up one hundred thousand human lives

already, from the strength of my own pain.

Antonin Artaud, Lettres á Géneca

Athanasiou

HOW ANGELS SLEEP. Unsoundly.

They toss and turn, trying to understand

the mystery of the living. They know so little 

about what it's like to fill a new prescription

for glasses and suddenly see the world

again, with a mixture of disappointment

and gratitude [...] Also they don't dream.

For this reason, they have one less thing to

talk about. In a backward way, when they wake

up they feel as if there is something they are

forgetting to tell each other. There is

disagreement among the angels as to whether

this is a result of something vestigial,

or whether it is the result of the empathy

they feel for the Living, so powerful it

sometimes makes them weep. In general,

they fall into these two camps on the subject

of dreams. Even among the angels,

there is the sadness of division.

Nicole Krauss, The History of Love

They say love is blind... but it isn't.

Love is perfect sight. Love is the ability to see

a person, I mean really see him--his strengths,

his weaknesses, his flaws, all his past triumphs

and mistakes--and view that person not as the

world says you're supposed to see him--

as that special someone you know you will

always embrace, body and soul, no matter what

anyone else says or thinks.

I know I can't tell anyone what I've been through.

I know they wouldn't understand. They don't

see him the way that I see him. 

All they know is the legend, the darkness.

They don't know the inner beauty, the warmth

and the joy more intense than anything

I ever thought was possible to experience.

They don't know the truth behind the name.

My angel.

My only.

Lucifer.

Marlon Pierre-Antoine, Wandering Stars

We all are men, in our own natures frail,

and capable of our flesh; few are angels.

William Shakespeare, Henry VIII

x----------x

The Chapter is sponsored by Valentino.