Towing Jehovah

WE HAVE LEFT the land and have embarked. We have burned our bridges behind us — indeed, we have gone farther and destroyed the land behind us. Now, little ship, look out! Beside you is the ocean: to be sure, it does not always roar, and at times it lies spread out like silk and gold and reveries of graciousness. But hours will come when you will realize that it is infinite and that there is nothing more awesome than infinity! Oh, the poor bird that felt free and now strikes the wall of this cage! Woe, when you feel homesick for the land as if it had offered more freedom — and there is no longer any “land.”

—Friedrich Nietzsche, “In the Horizon of the Infinite,” The Gay Science

And the Lord said, “Behold … I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.”

—The Book of Exodus