Cave Series 10: Face East, Young Man

By the glowing phosphorescence of a rock in my cave, I noticed something on the floor and groped for it. It was an old compass, but it still worked, and I could make out the directions too. I now saw I was sitting with my back to the East, so I turned round and immediately felt better. Renewed hope overcame me. The mouth of the cave is East, I thought, so that is the way to face. It was the mistaken theory of "Manifest Destiny", an excuse for imperialism, that encouraged people to Go West, as Horace Greeley urged, to practically destroy Native American culture and "conquer the wild west", so I was determined to do the opposite and turn my face towards the wisdom of the East. And so I sat with palms turned upwards, and they tingled and practically caught on fire as I imagined the exit opening up and me walking out into the sunshine. But alas, that was not to be, and I decided to settle down and sleep for a while to see the sky outside, albeit in my dreams, or was it a faint premonition of things to come?