53 lines
1.5 KiB
TeX
53 lines
1.5 KiB
TeX
\textchapter{The Journey Continues}
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\addtocontents{toc}{\vspace{\baselineskip}} % This creates the blank line in the TOC
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The Grail was never just a cup.\\
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And the Quest was never just a story.
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It is what happens to a person who keeps walking —\\
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who discovers, somewhere along the way,\\
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while searching for their Grail,\\
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that the walking has changed them.
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These stories are not the same as those before.\\
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Not because the Grail has moved,\\
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but because \textit{I} have.\\
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I have learned to sit longer with the shadows\\
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before reaching for the lamp.\\
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I have learned that the most human moments\\
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may not be the triumphant ones —\\
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but those where greatness and fragility\\
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inhabit the same breath,\\
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the same gesture --- \\
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the dignity of a breaking heart.
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The stories in this collection \\
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are not about teaching lessons.\\
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They do not resolve into tidy morals \\
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like rivers resolving into the sea.\\
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They witness.\\
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They stand beside us human creatures —\\
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magnificent and moth-eaten,\\
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luminous and lost —\\
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and they do not look away.
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Because that is what the Grail demands of us, finally:\\
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not answers, but the courage to keep seeking.\\
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The courage to keep asking the Quest-ion.\\
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If the first volume was an invitation to begin,\\
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this one is a companion for continuing —\\
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for those who have already felt the ache,\\
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and have chosen,\\
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despite everything,\\
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to keep walking.
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The Quest is not shorter than we hoped.\\
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It is longer,\\
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and stranger,\\
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and more beautiful.
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So let us continue\ldots
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— William Zeitler
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