Linda: Our Eyes and Her Soul

HIGHER THAN THE HEAVENS “He who has the courage to laugh is almost as much master of the world as he who is ready to die. In this place everything I see or hear starts up an image of sweet remembrance. If you analyze well your most poetic impressions and imaginings of the ones that most exalt you and pull you outside of yourself and of the real world, the pleasure they cause consist totally or chiefly in remembrance.” Giacomo Leopardi What we cannot see in Linda’s hospital room are the trillions of bright red whirling atoms, each the color of brilliant blood, colliding with one another and exploding into swirling yellow clusters of blinking stars. “Love is the fire of life,” the Angel of Delight is telling Linda. Arching over the hospital bed is a golden bridge laden with shining red rubies, glistening white diamonds, and glowing green emeralds. The luminous angel whispers into Linda’s ear, “It is the Bridge of Pneuma, the invisible energy connecting a person to their assigned destiny. Pneuma is an interior energy, an essence of joy which cannot die.” Linda’s spirit is watching a procession of translucent men, women, and children walking in a graceful procession across the bridge. The visitors are emerging from the left wall, crossing the room, and exiting through the sun-heated window. “I don’t want to die, but I think I have to,” Linda is crying. “When you cross the Bridge of Pneuma and flow into the microcosm of Innumerable Affections, you retain all the delights of love you experienced in your heart when it was beating in your body.” “I don’t understand what you said. I don’t know if I’m mentally retarded or not anymore.” “You will never forget Nelson and he will never forget you. Love cannot die because love is energy and energy cannot disappear. It can only be misplaced or misdirected if the delight of love is ignored,” the Angel of Delight informed her. “And when it is time, Nelson will cross the Bridge of Pneuma and be with you.”