the little monk

from The Brothers Karamazov

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“This is what I think of you, you will go forth from these walls, but you will live like a monk in the world. You will have many enemies, but even your foes will love you. Life will bring you many misfortunes, but you will find your happiness in them, and will bless life and will make others bless it - which is what matters most. Well, that is your character.”

the little monk understands that the crystals that form a snowflake are so sensitive to initial conditions that a breeze blowing over the Arctic tundra, a cloud passing between the sun and the earth, or the vibrations of the heartbeat of a bowhead whale can change it into something new

the little monk knows a beluga whale looks at you quizzically and sings such beautiful songs it is called the canary of the sea

the little monk knows a narwhal whale places the tip of it’s own hornlike tooth into the broken part of another narwhal’s tooth to ease it’s suffering and assuage it’s pain

the little monk knows a beluga whale lives longer than any other creature on earth for it’s heart beats slow, strong and steady in the cold, cold waters of the Chukchi Sea

the little monk wonders, “Is the ancient power of sacrificial love still at work in the world today?”

— Trevor Scott Barton, “the little monk,” 2020