if i as a crumbly leaf, brown and wrinkled, floated up into the skies and saw one hundred kingdoms, would i be more a king, or less a king, than i am now?
if i feared for the feeding of my family due to my ostentatious wealth and precarious political position, rather than for the usual reasons, would i be less a pauper?
if my tears fell because i had lost in a large wager at the club table, rather than, as now, because god's angels give me vision of thunder and scarlet, would i be less holy?
to live is to me a mystery like waters and sand.
