The Great Jigsaw in the Sky

I remember this one time when I was standing at the mouth of an ocean watching the sun dissolve behind soft, flat water and I felt something burst in my chest and in my hands and in the deepest pit of my stomach. It was a sudden understanding of life and love and the wind and rain and it was almost as if everything just clicked for those four or five seconds and there was nothing too dfficult to understand because everything was connected by atoms and chemistry and human compassion for the things they created. And that was all over in a few seconds and I went back to sandy feet and high stools beside granite bars. I've not spent time since trying to search out that understanding, only trying to remember the things that I knew. One day I'll take a son or a daughter back to that spot and we'll wait for the sun to drip out of the sky and when night approaches I'll tell them about the world and how it is just a neatly tiered structure of science and prayer and passion and angst that is all built on a foundation of human connections and understanding. I'll try to explain that everything is as simple as rows of houses, saturday night telelvision, raised glasses, kicked off shoes and shopping bags, and there'll never be a reason to say another word.