Hunger for the Real
Listening to the same melody, different people envisioned different pictures of reality—the one they desired or the one they lacked. Some heard the music of rain and imagined it tapping on their windows, flowing down gutters, washing the world, erasing dirt and hostility, creating a new, clean, kind, and beautiful world—without wars, poverty, or epidemics. Without drought. And they saw this rain so vividly that they reached out to it, anticipating the sensation of drops falling on their palms. Others imagined a different reality: they saw cutlets frying in a pan of sizzling oil. They saw the cutlets so clearly that they salivated in anticipation of dinner. For them, cutlets symbolized a world without hunger. A world in which they wanted to live, surrounded by care. And to be satiated. A third group envisioned a picture of themselves in a shower, under a stream of warm water. And with them in the shower was a loved one, and to the sound of the water, they made love. These people most ...