The Real Thing

The Real Thing

...is embodied experience.

There are many things
which can only be known
through experience.

Explanations and metaphors
eventually are exposed
as the threadbare best
anyone can possibly offer
in place of the real thing.

Sunrise in the mountains,
freedom on the open road,
floating through the sky,
standing before an audience,
the death of a love one,
your first, very first kiss –

all mean so much more
to the embodied soul
than they ever could
to even the most earnest
of intent listeners.

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Is there anyone so wise as to learn
by the experience of others?
~ Voltaire

You cannot create experience.
You must undergo it.
~ Albert Camus

Experience keeps a dear school,
but fools will learn in no other.
~ Benjamin Franklin

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