"How often in the course of a lifetime
is the third eye, our organ for detecting
the hidden luster of the front door key,
capable of opening? Up to now, this has
not been investigated. And why should it be?
One single time is enough, and then
all the cold shark eyes of the world
start to look a touch friendlier.
Time is irrelevant in these matters.
Joyce and the monastic brethren who
painted their manuscript ornaments
a thousand years ago were working on
the same project. There was a pattern
to be abstracted from the confused mesh
of tangled lines that was the reality
of the world, a pattern that would have
staying power, a pattern to which one could
say Yes. Every now and then a work
succeeded in accomplishing such a task,
and the heavens opened once more.
On February 2, 1922, for example…."
— Adolf Holl, The Left Hand of God