Half-Closed Eyes

There were promises made, but that was a long time ago now. Back then we were young, and always, along with being young, there is foolishness. The young know little of this world and how its sharp corners and hard edges press against life and how the vagaries of time and circumstance can seem to conspire against even the best of intentions.

We thought we knew about the world because we had seen it, watched it, like all those growing a shape to fit into the world we had watched carefully and sneered at the compromises the older ones always seemed to make. We knew that in the world we would build out of the fragments those older ones left us, there would be no place for compromise, pretence and hypocrisy.

We were going to build a good new world, built on honesty and trust and truthfulness, even then though deep down we must have known we were already lying to each other, and to ourselves.

Already we were beginning to realise, only dimly at first, that no such world is possible, that truth has hard sharp edges, that honesty can lead to blood flowing into gutters and that this world and human desires and needs will always be in conflict, both with it and with each other.

Slowly we learned how to see - and how to look away - with half-closed eyes.