Crashing Tides

by Gwendolyn Marie

“Have you ever read Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Hector?” ​“Enlighten me, old man,” Hector said, hoping that the longer he delayed in his repel down that the more sense he could make of what the priest said. ​When Athanasios spoke, his whole manner changed into one who delights in storytelling. His voice grew deeper as if Plato himself rose from the grave to tell this age old story through the priest. “Imagine a group of humans inside a cave. They were bound tightly, unable to move and facing the stone walls their entire life. They could not look away. All they could see were the shadows on the cave walls that were cast by the fire behind them. This was their reality, this was what they knew. Imagine if one became free, how he would see the true world. There would not even be words or thoughts to explain it.” ​“This is how we are. We are in that cave still. Even science is restricted, for it is limited by humans themselves. Our senses. Our perception of time. Our ideas of reality itself. But what is really outside our own metaphorical cave walls?”