crystal figurine

206 Notes

Inside everyone is a crystal figurine. It looks just like you, down to the tiny crystal eyelashes.

If someone touches your crystal figurine — they just need to tap it lightly, gently — it makes a beautiful sound. A single pure tone. And if you can touch someone else’s when they touch yours, the tones will blend together. They will make a chord. This chord is what makes life worth living.

But you have to be careful. The crystal figurines are fragile. If you touch them too hard, cracks will appear. The cracks are tiny. It’s very hard to see them. And sometimes, the cracks can add a richness to the tone, a depth that wasn’t there before. But the rest of the time, the cracks take something away. The tone isn’t the same. It loses just a little bit of the purity that made the sound so special. And making a chord with someone else becomes that much harder.

So we learn to protect them. We keep them in a secret room deep inside of us, hiding them from danger. We only take them out of that secret room when we feel safe.

But we still want to share our crystal figurines with the world. Because we want to hear that chord. That chord is the reason we get out of bed in the morning, the reason we put food in our bellies, the reason we do everything.

So we put a little window into that secret room. And we set up a chain of mirrors and periscopes, lashed together with string and popsicle sticks, so people can see through this window. And so we look at each other’s crystal figurines, distorted through imperfect glass. And we imagine what chords we could make with each other. It’s not quite the same, but it’s something.

The funny thing about these windows and mirrors and periscopes and string and popsicle sticks is you forget that what is at the other end is real. It becomes a picture in your mind. Something imaginary. And sometimes, without thinking, you grab a hold of the periscope and you shake. And the string and popsicle sticks and mirrors and periscopes rock back and forth, creaking and swaying, all the way down, until they tap against the window of the secret room. And because the secret room is so small, the window is right next to the crystal figurine. So close, that if you shake hard enough, the window shakes in its frame. And the glass taps the crystal figurine.

Just a little bit.

But a little bit is just enough.

One more crack.