Revolutionists

 All revolutions are necessarily failures; by strange and unexpected pathways we arrive at where we mean to be. For most of us, all we are doing is setting up pathways for others; building networks, holding lines, making tiny advances, until finally a decisive blow can be struck - often enough not in the way we intended.

We come to belief through action, or (as the case may be) reaction; we respond to situations instinctively, uncertainly, then we turn around and explain this response as if it was always what we had intended. It is in this way - forever looking backward, only partially and haphazardly making sense of what is ahead -that we come to understand ourselves, become what we irrevocably must become: you cannot talk yourself out of something you have already done.

"our time in this state was ephemeral...a season of discontent"