Work of Heart

Viktor Frankl once said, “What is to give light must endure burning.” And so it often is with matters of the heart. Be it passion, humility, love, anger, forgiveness, courage, or despair—whatever the attitude or emotion—many events in our lives comprise a crucible designed to forge and temper resilience and character. Turning from the philosophical to the perceptible, we see a young child who has braved the dreary desolation of his present to reach an abandoned bunker of his past. To the left, a corroded memory of innocence. To the right, the skeleton that haunts his past and the stasis of time that preserves it. Before him, the gears required to power his recovery. All he need do to use them is step forward and embrace the indomitable spirit of his own heart; still ablaze with hope and conviction after all the barbs, slings, and arrows  it endured. He must—as we all must at times—brave the fire of his soul if he is to survive the cold of the world that compelled him to do so in the first place.