Illusions

Went with two friends last night to see The Illusionist, filmed by a Czech Republic company. Beautiful old world tone, a love story of the interchange between illusions and reality. What is real, what isn't? What is good and what is bad? Do they change places? And can we ever be sure which is which?

There's an old Chinese story about an elderly man whose horse bolts and the villagers console him saying how bad it is. He says, maybe, but maybe not. The horse returns with a herd of wild horses. The villagers congratulate the man. He says, maybe this is good, maybe it isn't. His son falls and breaks his leg while taming the wild horses. Again the old man is consoled by the villagers. You know his answer. Not long after this, the government comes through the village and conscripts all able bodied young men to go to war. The elderly man's son, who has the broken leg, is left behind to live out his life peacefully.

The assignment of good and bad to events is mostly done with vision that can prove to be more illusion than reality. I cling to this story as I proceed down the painful path of my husband's decision to pursue a life separate from our long ongoing conversation that is marriage. Who's to say whether that decision may yet prove to be our salvation - individually and as a couple - or not? As I mature, I know only that I know less and less.