“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
I am indeed coming down to shake the heavens and the earth, to move all from its place; to bring forth that which was hidden and to reveal that which was misplaced[26]; to open that which was shut and to shut that which was opened.
Therefore prepare, My people, for the time has come; yes, today is the day of salvation! Go forth, beloved ones, and set all these crooked paths straight; regain the line, prepare and watch. For the leaves of the fig tree are upon its branches; summer is near![27]