Reading inspires me to write. Therefore I write in search of intuitive minds ……. to read ……. what I write. The central objective of a writer is to capture the mind’s eye whereby infusing a mental picture. If this cannot be done, the writer may as well be writing to him or herself. “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” Metaphors such as this, if not understood, can take a reader into a zone of uncertainty, and a mental picture may never be realized. I love the writings of Plato.
The words behind the Greek myths and metaphors that mystified us as children to the inner sanctum of twisted emperors, the proto-feminists, and political dissenters, as the Greek classics have shown those of us who have chosen to indulge.

Socrates, a classical Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Western philosophy and the ethical tradition of thought, was Plato’s teacher. Plato wrote “The Allegory of the Cave,” a short story in book 7 of his masterwork called “The Republic.” It compared the life of people chained in a darkened cave, where they are deluded by shadows, with that of those released into the dazzling sunlight outside.

Chris Hayes, a commentator on MSNBC, wrote “A Colony in a Nation” after the election of Donald Trump. From his book, I envisioned writing a short story titled “The Allegory of the Colony,” depicting the period from Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619 through the election of the 45th president. The story would compare life in the shallowness of enchainment to the overtones of “Hands up, Don’t Shoot.” From a period of no voice unto a time of a voice not heard. A time when African-Americans realized the need to give their children what was called “The Talk.” The talk in pre-Civil Rights times was ……. “Never run in a white neighborhood,” etc.: The talk post Civil Rights movement became……… “Keep your hands on the steering wheel, don’t make sudden moves, and say “yes” officer and “no” officer” etc., etc. However, the sanctity and support of the police, as viewed on the other side of the spectrum, has become a mindset of, “why didn’t he just do what he/she was told.” The excessive force began long before the video of Rodney King.

We are a reactionary rather than a preventative society ……. a melting pot, boiling over with divisiveness. A society predicated on fear and hatred with mistrust of thy neighbor a multiplying factor. The decline and fall of the Roman Empire would be the perfect example of our country’s direction. The causes are glaringly the same, with money embedded in politics at the top of the list. The Roman Empire lost the strength to exercise effective control in its society. Modern historians mention factors such as the effectiveness of its army, the health of the population, the strength of the economy, the competence of the Emperor, the religious changes, the efficiency of the civil administration, and last but not least, the increasing pressure from “barbarians” outside of Roman. This is a sure indicator of present-day America; high unemployment in the black community, the 45th, police brutality, conservative religious intrusion, and the threat of external and domestic terrorism. With all of the indicators, we fail to see the reality of it all, as in Aesop’s Fable “The Four Oxen and the Lion,” and we are not embracing the idiom “United we Stand, divided we fall” as a nation. I envision a day when party loyalty aided by alternative truths will bring a rude awakening to this nation.