Phil is at his finest in terrains of deep conflict and humanity. When he speaks politically, it is as if he is entering terrain far below his true stature as an author, activist and philosopher. Sometimes I think this detracts from his prowess and power.

Here, however, he speaks of a fact so deep and rich, so ubiquitously ever-present and astonishingly ignored or rejected… that he swings dearly near to a vein of existence … where vast and unimagined treasures and terrors lie buried side-by-side. And that root is one we share; for to have a human heart and mind is to participate directly in both the encounter and the informing. That is to say, we both encounter and instruct the monster… personally, in ways so astonishing and often invisible that… were they to be even partially revealed, our species would be reforged in an instant of revolution that would, of necessity, become a cascade.

Here is a key. Can you find the lock it fits? Dare you seek it? Might you fit it carefully against the tumblers and… with the anciently animalian transentience that is your gift and birthright… assay the turning of it? The spinning of the lock, the retraction of the bar and … the lethally ecstatic transformation that must, absolutely must… then follow?