WHAT CAIN MUST HAVE THOUGHT OF ABEL

to be human is to inherit the nexus between the universal and the particular ... to thirst for the first and be satisfied only with the second ... to feel the compulsion to follow the truth and do the best and sooner or later to turn from it casually with contempt ... it isn't a both and ... it's an either or ... not the easy cohabitation of mind and brain but the attempt of each to murder the other ... one with an excuse ... the other with a snarl ... this would be bad enough if it were kept at home and within the family but it will leave the house for the forum and the marketplace as if it were resolved and could go where it wanted ... to the higher levels of philosophy and political theory with a concealed weapon ... to the church and the temple with the stock and the stake ... and even to love and teenage romance to bring disease and abortion ... it isn't that I didn't see you or think of you but that I must suppress you ... I love you but I want the best for all of us which as I see it means to put you aside ... this I would not do if I could reason with you but in all the tides of the ocean I know you for a spike that won't bend or go under ... too pointed ever for that