Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
T.S. Eliot
“The Hollow Men”
Institution stems from the inspiration to live. This inspiration remains meekly expressed in our institutions today. The three great inspirations are the inspiration to learn, the inspiration to meet, and the inspiration for well-being. They all serve, really, the will to be, to express. This is, you might say, the reason for living. All the institutions of man, whether they serve man’s interest in medicine, or chemistry, or mechanics, or architecture, are all ultimately answerable to this desire in man to find out what forces cause him to be, and what means made it possible for him to be.
Today, shadows are black. But really, there is no such thing as white light, black shadow. I was brought up when light was yellow and shadow was blue. White light is a way of saying that even the sun is on trial, and certainly, all of our institutions are on trial.
I believe this is so because institutions have lost the inspirations of their beginnings. The constant play of circumstances, from moment to moment unpredictable, distort the inspired beginnings of natural agreement. The institution will die when its inspirations are no longer felt, and it operates as a matter of course. Human agreement, however, once it presents itself as a Realization, is indestructible.
Inspiration is the feeling of beginning at the threshold where Silence and Light meet… The artist offers his work to his art in the sanctuary of all expression, which I like to call the Treasury of Shadow, lying in that ambiance: Light to silence, Silence to Light. Light, the giver of presence, casts its shadow, which belongs to Light. What is made belongs to Light and to Desire (Lobell 1979, 20).