A Carousal

They called it a symposium. It was meant to be a free conversation between educated individuals on lofty topics that would enrich the soul. Like their spiritual ancestors, the Greeks, they gathered in a wealthy home in the best part of town, and none of them were unconscious of their own importance. They all liked to talk and the promise of a liberal supply from the host’s wine cellar was not likely to prove an impediment to their slippery tongues.

But this happened in our modern times, an age where the Greek virtues of universal truth are long gone and only a distorted memory is left. They remembered the elevated speeches on love that were produced at that original symposium in ancient Athens, and they certainly felt attracted to those sublime ideals, but as children of today, (late in history, post post modernism even) their love was primarily directed at one rather unstable point: themselves.

They were seated at the grand table, indulging in the first course, the wine already plentifully dispersed. A cacophony of chatter was heard excitingly anticipating the speeches they would make when everyone would be listening to them, to him, to me(!) in particular.

But the moment never came, or rather it never reached its fulfillment. True, they all spoke. One after another they rose and delivered eloquent orations touching on that topic of tonight, the love that they so much loved, but couldn’t grasp.

We can’t really blame them for failing to understand, after all they were our contemporaries and therefore they all had to talk about different things, expressing what was right and good for them only. Love is a feeling, they correctly stated, feelings are personal and not meant to be understood. So every man present focused on his favorite topic instead: himself. And every woman chose herself, and no one spoke a language anyone could understand.

But they were happy. Well, they looked happy, inebriated people often do, and these had a double source of intoxication. They talked until the light dawned on them, and with the beauty of their own voice resounding in their head they concluded the carousal.

https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2020/07/02/your-daily-word-prompt-carouse-ydwordprompt-July-2-2020/