Muses With Patent Stoppers

“I have tears in my eyes,” said Melpomene and pointed reportedly a finger against the root of her nose.

“Have noticed, dear Mel, your tears come easy now a days. In recent decades, your tears come more and more easy. But it is not uncommon, so enjoy just your self-pity,” said Thalia little casually.

“It’s not self-pity. It is compassion, organic empathy, and there is a world of difference between the two things,” snorted Melpomene.

“Ohhh, you have never read Wisdom Quotes? I have an app that quickly finds plenty of them, and they say inter alia that the world is your mirror image, so I think that if you feel so much for the suffering of others, you feel the same for yourself. And therefore it could as well be called self-pity.”

“Ha,” she added quickly, “perhaps you should have self-pity with the world and feel compassion for yourself?… Just joking!”

“Yes, for you everything is just fun and games, but when you bear a heavy stone in your heart, it is not easy to pretend that everything is just for fun. For it seems to me that everything not is that.”

“Sky and sea foam, so maybe we should ask Erato for advice. She always finds that everything has something to do with love, and once she gets started, she’s not going to stop. She says that love goes right through highs, lengths and breadths of everything, and therefore is the best answer to every question. For me, pure love and blessing is the same thing, but Erato has entrusted to me that she knows about a source of love extract that is so strong that it can be diluted a thousand times and still be effective. It rises diagonally up to the right of the Big Dipper. Should we try to find it and get you back on track, little Mel?”

“Oh, yes. We take all the bottles, we can carry, so we have something to share. We have a whole box of empty bottles with patent stoppers, and the love extract has hopefully not been patented yet.”

“No, it is not. If you patent it, goes the glory of St. Gertrud, and so there is only a little insipid sentimentality back. Now let’s find the bottles and get going.