Entrainment

There’s a moment in “Atlas Shrugged”, Ayn Rand’s tome replete with rich, memorable characters and endless soliloquy, where our heroine Dagny Taggart having just crashed her airplane on the outskirts of John Galt’s utopia wakes from her daze to say “We never had to take any of it seriously, did we?”  Dagny is of course referring to the relentless struggles she faced keeping her railroad business alive almost single-handedly. Having alighted in this surreal sanctuary, gazing into the eyes of the man she’s never met but somehow knows is made for her, all of those extraneous cares and concerns wondrously vaporize into thin air.

Reading that passage in the novel never fails to take my breath away, dog-eared for easy reference the first time I tackled this epic several years ago.  Could you even imagine meeting someone who would make you feel so comfortable you’d never need to worry again; everything will truly be okay?  We think this is the stuff that makes up romance novels or only exists with the help of a magical philter in a fairy tale.  Surely this doesn’t happen in real life, does it? 

Maybe it does.  Maybe it is possible to find that inimitable connection, unleashing a slow dance into harmony that cannot be reckoned with, like clock pendulums that when placed next to each other can’t help but adjust to swing in perfect synchrony. Maybe this phenomenon is unfathomable until you are lucky enough to find yourself in it because such enchantment can only exist exclusive to those who create it for each other.  As the poet Robert Graves says “The act of love belongs to two people, in the way that secrets are shared.”

I found myself in a different place today; an Eden that begins to shine a light on this possibility.  Atlas, of Greek mythology fame, is a metaphor for Dagny and her fellow protagonists who hold the weight of the world on their shoulders. One by one these staunch non-believers shed their burdens, losing themselves in Galt’s utopia.  What if I could do the same?  What if I could allow myself to believe in nirvana and surrender to it?  What if I could let myself shrug?