Mary’s Hourglass Parable – 132

Dear Companions of the Villa,

Claire has given us the bread, Byron the body; I will give you the sand. For timing is not only a matter of yeast or passion, but of the relentless fall of grains.

An hourglass cannot be hurried. No shaking or tilting will make the sand pass faster without breaking the glass. And yet, it can be squandered. Turn it too late, forget it in distraction, and the sand is gone, leaving only emptiness.

So it may be with the future. To hasten beyond measure is to shatter the vessel itself, spilling both promise and peril across the floor. But to dawdle is just as deadly: when the last grain falls, no plea will call it back.

Molly once warned us with her dark jest — her modest proposal of sacrifice born of desperation. That horror waits at the bottom of the glass, if we let time escape us. The gauntlet is not only fire and blows, but the narrow neck of the hourglass: pass through too soon and we destroy ourselves; too late, and we starve.

The question before us is simple, though the answer is not: can humanity learn to watch the sand, to turn the glass at the right moment, neither breaking it nor neglecting it? If not, abundance will remain no more than a dream buried in the dust.

— Mary