The Double Truth

At the Socratic Sugarhouse

30 At the Socratic Sugarhouse I said “The steam is like a ghost in the sugarhouse,” and you said that didn’t mean anything to you since you didn’t believe in ghosts. So I said, “How about a cloud then,” and you said, “But it isn’t a cloud either. It’s steam. Why do you want to make it something it isn’t?” “I was only imagining,” I said. “Don’t you ever imagine?” “What for?” “To see things.” “I see plenty. It’s dangerous to see more than what’s there.” “But if you don’t, you don’t see what’s there.” “Like ghosts?” “Well, yes, ghosts and other things. If I said to you that the steam is a ghost that haunts this house, what would you say?” “I’d say you’re crazy. What’s real is here and every place else.” “I’m not saying it isn’t. I think the same, but what about those things you can’t see?” “You’ve lost me now. You’d better keep your mind on the pan. Too much thinking deNiord text-2.indd 30 11/10/10 10:40 AM 31 ruins the syrup.” “I’m looking back and ahead at the same time when I stare at the sap. My mind’s the fire that boils the sap that turns to syrup.” “That sounds nice enough but crazier still than what you said before about the ghosts and clouds. Now run that off before it burns.” “Do you think that someone who thought that steam was like nothing else in the world invented syrup? That’s what I mean by looking back, wondering what someone saw in something that wasn’t yet real but hidden there. So when I look at the steam and see a ghost, I’m only dreaming of course. I know it’s steam, but I’m also saying there are things inside of things.” “The world’s the way it is—always knowable in the end. Always hard with evidence if you look close enough. I looked at something once and called it sugarby mistake. The little sweetness we get comes from so much work: forty gallons of sap to one of syrup. You look at the steam and see a ghost. I look at the steam and see my grief. We’re close deNiord text-2.indd 31 11/10/10 10:40 AM 32 enough in that I guess, so let’s leave it there. Either way, it comes to nothing in the air above the roof.” deNiord text-2.indd 32 11/10/10 10:40 AM ...