Friction on Fifth

I had a run in with an avatar of the Queen of Hearts last week at Saved on Fifth, she was walking into the store when my children blocked her way as they argued about who was going to get the only blue face-mask style hat. When most people would have politely said 'excuse me' she aggressively trumpeted "Get you kids out of the way!" The attendant onto whose elbow the old queen clung looked at me with abundant apologies in her eyes, what could she do about her hostile octogenarian employer? I pacified the chaotic pack of young ones as they passed, although, like Alice, none of us hit the ground to escape the queen's wrath. I think I may have lost my head.

Nothing is simple. Even though the hostile force that passed by us might be the same that causes the souls of tender ones to flee this realm for the safety of dream lands, this crone also demands we ground ourselves, leave the realm of the head and inhabit the forgotten realms of the body and the neglected foundation of the earth. That is no easy task, and it is the only gateway by which the lost spirits can reinhabit the flesh and flower in the heart. This Queen makes a very interesting trainer as she her cruelty plays at flushing the most tender parts of the heart away from this realm of the flesh, and then opening the gates by which they reenter through the metaphor of beheading. As anyone who has spent any time in therapy knows, to be reborn we must loose control and let the wild ones emerge, contain their passions, welcome them home. Maybe then some adversary tries to scare them away again, and we see what happens, and we hold on for dear life.