Q for Quintessence

Webster’s College Dictionary offers the following definition of quintessence: n.  the pure and concentrated essence of a substance.  2. the most perfect embodiment  of something.

I have to question how many  substances now used by humanity have a pure and concentrated essence?  Look at our coinage.  There is no more pure and concentrated silver dollar.  It is a combination of cheaper metals, plated, and worth little when melted down.  Dimes, quarters are made in like manner.

Our food is processed for a longer “shelf life.”  Ever found a Twinkie after a year or so where you hid it in the back of the cupboard?  A little chewy maybe, but still edible.  Anymore, I can buy a loaf of bread, leave it out for two weeks or more, and find no mold.  However, I need to qualify that with the admission that I buy the cheapest bread I can find like Great Value or Clover Valley.  Never once have they gone moldy on me.  I splurged once for a name brand loaf of specialty bread and the blue fuzz was growing within less than a week.  Hence, the cheap, dry, non-moldy bread is bought.  What am I stuffing into my body?  Is it capable of being broken down by my digestive system since it does not succumb to its outside environment?  Oh well.

So again, I question if anything we know of meets the definition of quintessence?  I have pondered this question repeatedly, out of curiosity and boredom and now for survival’s sake as I see our environment plundered and pillaged.  My happy answer is this:  Giant Redwoods, Sequoias, poison oak and poison ivy are examples of quintessence!  Yay!  The trees I mentioned existed before we learned how to technologically alter them!  Poison oak and poison ivy are a pure scourge to mankind that keep them away from the natural beauty of nature.  Again, Yay!  

Animals are bred down, bred for color, for size, for aesthetic physical characteristics repeatedly.  Edible vegetation is genetically altered, as are the liquids we drink, the sweeteners we use, the medicines we take to cure the viruses, etc., caused by the mutations of the food we ingest.  Seems like a vicious, unending cycle of destruction, doesn’t it?  Actually, we need quintessence!  Pure water, pure air, pure vegetation and food, pure breeds of animals are vital to keeping us alive and in balance.

So how do we accomplish this and help our earth regenerate herself naturally?  We use quintessence to regain quintessence!  Ta Da!  Simple enough, isn’t it?  And where do we find the quintessence to establish more quintessence?  Again, simple.  We call on the minds and hearts and souls that have not conformed to ease and cutting corners.  We call on creativity, and its nature of purity and concentrated essence that benefits the earth and all who populate it.  (I can hear you scoffing now, fellow cynic!)

Many of us have been tainted by the input that floods us that we can do nothing, change nothing, and simply acquiesce to “the powers that be.”  Many of us look at trying to revert back to the essences of purity as idealistic, utopian, ridiculous in today’s world.  We hear, “It’s too late.  Give it up.  Nothing is going to change things now.”  But that is not my truth!

My truth is I see people struggling to survive on the streets, struggling to feed children, struggling to make sense of what is happening to them that they have been told they cannot control—and they CREATE solutions!  It is their purity of heart, mind, soul that fosters a growth of more and more quintessence!  They create through using what they have to make their world, and subsequently the world of others, a better place!  CREATIVITY and a loving and kind heart are at the core of quintessence.  In our worst times of despair, we create the most beautiful, pure paintings—the greatest music is written to soothe all those who have given up and offer hope—the greatest words are written to let others know they are not alone in their fears and isolation.  Sculptures  speak to us as we gaze into marble eyes and see the intricacies and wonder created from a piece of wood, stone, marble.  Quintessence is reborn in the moments we look on the creations coming from the hearts of those who do not succumb, do not allow themselves to be sheep or move to the sound of a pitiless drummer.  Art, music, writing—voices raised through their works.  Concentrated Purity of thought, soul, heart that spreads.  Touches.  Fosters more and more quintessence.  There is no color, no gender, no pettiness in quintessence.  It is purity of substance.  It is the real heart, the concentrated essence of humanity that we all want and need. 

THAT is MY TRUTH!  Peace to us all as we create!