Horacio

We were told something much different than the general population. Don't get me wrong; we also got our tolerable share of the keep your head down and plug away stuff. Yet while others sought to channel their inner work horse, we searched high and low for the revolving bookcase. There are more secrets to this guild than your quarterly examinations could ever prep you to see. What if your understanding was being squeezed like a lemon so that all that remained was a fragrant rind. The glory of your education was meant to be nothing more than an air freshener. However, we were born under the glow of a different sun. Our eyes are attuned to footnotes and marginal scribble. Let the bulk of our graduating class sacrifice their minds and bodies to set a pleasant mood for their benefactors. Only give me three or four men of ill repute; repeat offenders that take half their pay in gold and the other half in confidential blueprints. Some go their entire lives duped by chalk boards and projected light shows of instruction leading to nothing. The elevator does not take you to the last floor. This is not the first time you came across these unsubstantiated rumors. Are we to believe that the etchings of masters are adjacent to the mess hall? Perhaps one might stumble upon a vault of kingly delights in the parking garage. No adept worth his salt can find peace in his formal education. It is up to you to locate the old spiral staircase that is said to be under repair, yet does not suffer one protruding nail. All is polished wood with reinforced steel beams. If any were inclined to toss an anvil down this stairwell, the anvil would come out the worse for it. Trust me when I tell you the things men will do to hide coveted teaching begin with procedural fibs and end in bloody murder. If you wait long enough, you will spy out the tutor's smirk. Start there, and work outward. In the same language that knowledge is concealed it is also confessed. Tease out through pause and odd inflection the back alleys of wisdom. Let no man understand the shadowy enterprise of your heart or they will surely put an end to it. Only smile and be agreeable. That is a passport that can not be stamped enough. Through manners and guile will you retake the world. Knock twice to enter, and thrice to help us carry the body of the one who only knocked once.