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I didn't pursue the point any further. I didn't have an argument to present against it. Maybe there was none. What she said seemed so right and so easy to accept. And who was I anyway, to argue?
We didn't speak much after that, for a long while. Life was rich in this quiet atmosphere. I enjoyed the serenity of it, in which everything that wasn't focused on love drifted into the background. I had no desire to interrupt that by raising points for discussion. Our moments together, as they unfolded and passed into history, were satisfying. What more does anyone need?
Only much later did Helen pick the subject up again that we left off with. "Do you want to know what happens when love becomes isolated?" she said in a serious tone of voice. She got out of bed without waiting for an answer and put her nightgown on and handed me a white bathrobe.
Before I realized what had happened we were sitting at the table again, a glass of wine before us, a plate of Melba toast and cheese was in the middle of the table, more olives and the rest of our sandwiches. It took her but a minute to get it all arranged.
The light in the room was still dim. A spotlight shone onto the back wall, onto a print of a painting by Salvador Dali, The Sacrament of the Last Supper. The mellow light that it reflected, together with the light from a small stained-glass lamp on the table, created a romantic atmosphere. We toasted each other. I felt so unspeakable close to her now, as if I had known her always. There had been no need to reach out to her. This union had unfolded so naturally and effortlessly, and beautifully. However, this had not been the kind of thing that we had come to the table to talk about.
"Right, what happens when love becomes isolated," she said and smiled. "What happens when love becomes limited to apply only in the most private domain and nowhere else?"
She told me that answering this question involves a lesson of history again. She also told me that a large part of that history is reflected in Europe's darkest period, a period darker than the dark ages, a period of eighty years of war in which over half of the population of Europe was butchered to death or died from the consequences.
She also explained that this subject could not be talked about in bed. "I have made a rule for myself," she said, "never to entertain ugly thoughts in bed. Ugly thoughts tend to disrupt the lateral flowing of love and make the most precious appear cheap. But we can talk about those ugly things out here. However, for this we need wine. Wine represents inspiration and understanding. We also need olives. Olives represent, oil, and oil represents consecration to good, charity, gentleness, our heaven on Earth. We also need food. We need to feast on what makes us grow. We need to feast on the truth. With all that in reach, we can now dare to look at the ugly things."
Helen explained that in 1511 the Venetian Empire, the foremost slave trader of the world, which it was at this time, had been nearly eradicated by the forces of the Renaissance. For the first time ever the leading nations of Europe had formed an alliance, not for conquest, but to rid the world of an imperial evil that Venice represented at the time. The League of Cambrai was the result of that alliance, and, as the professor has already pointed out to you, the allied forces nearly won. Only when the final battle was about to be waged, the Pope relented and stopped the campaign. That is how Venice was saved.
Helen pointed out that all of this is common knowledge among historians. She sighed, then pointed out however that only a few historians realize that the near defeat, which had caused the Venetian Empire to remain intact, may have motivated the empire to wage war against the Renaissance that had threatened it, and the renaissance spirit in future ages that would eternally be a danger to any empire's existence. She said that this war hasn't ended to the present day. Even in our modern time the leading oligarchy is engaged in a relentless campaign against the spirit of the Renaissance that had nearly defeated imperialism.
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