day no. 17,403: shadow lands

"The critics cannot bring themselves to believe that a man will ever again have a taste for going back to the originals, as more interesting then the copies. For all the apparent materialism and mass mechanism of our present culture, we, far more than any of our fathers, live in a world of shadows." — G.K. Chesterton, The Illustrated London News (1933)

We prefer shadows to substance. Instead of going back to the well of life, we mass produces stickers of wells and slap them on everything. Rather than rely on the originals from where the copies got their inspiration, we make copies of the copies and enjoy ever decreasing returns on our investments. As a result, we are continually taking additional steps away from the means. We are wringing out whatever we can from a towel that hasn't been near any water for decades. The shadow lands point back to the substance. The shadow of the cross is meant to turn your eyes to the cross itself and the light behind it. The shadow of a glass of water cannot quench your thirst, but the water in the glass actually could.

Isaiah 45:22

Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.