The greatest journey begins with a smile (Artwork by Y. Gilbert)

— Watson! Wake up! The hunt is on. I have seen her.

With these words, Sherlock Holmes, my dear friend, left my sleeping room. Her? Lady Frances Carfax? No, another woman, certainly, or Holmes would not have been so upset, as he has outmost care not to entertain romantic illusions with women.

Who indeed is the Right One? The woman who could transform the day of Sherlock Holmes, push the heir of Caesar to building waterways for the city of Arles, or climb the most dangerous summit in the world, not to claim her, but just for the sake of her.

Like the White Wale, Moby Dick, the Right One is pursuing Man from the origins of times. Perhaps it was for Her that men began to walk, to conquer and went to war. There are some men who are spared the deep anguish of those two eyes peering into your heart, so kind they are, and yet like Heaven you would need to build how many towers of Babel to conquer?

Salvador de Madariaga wrote about Hernan Cortès a marvelous line. The Conquest, and how the Conqueror was conquered by his conquest. To me the Right One is indeed a land to be discovered, and not conquered, as the power of Man is not in the conquest, but in the building of a new generation by securing and restoring peace. As the Lord King Arthur when he is riding to the final battle, he is bringing the trees of his kingdom to bloom with his royal blood.

The story of the Right One is about a Land of Marvels, which cannot be approached without entering traitorous channels and fighting stubborn winds. Those defenses have not been brought upon by hostility or devious schemes. Those defenses are but the reflections of Man own demons. The greatest challenge to Man is to conquer himself, so that he can be conquered in peace.

Even to the most stubborn man, the most cynical one, there will be a moment of grace when the Right One is entering their life. Like a comet of fire and ice who is crossing Heaven, it will bring the stern alarum of men to fidget and die. Such is the power of the Right One.

Albert Camus wrote that his secret was in a valley, under dead flowers and that this secret was the essence of his soul. My secret is somewhere in the world, working too much, and the most insignificant detail of her life would become a charming tale to my ears. As if my world had been shaken loose, all pieces of my everyday life are like a puzzle, and she has become the key to that harmony. The Right One is the Great Undoer and yet as the waters of the Nile, she is the one bringing life and hope.

Man has conquered the poles, but there is one pole of inaccessibility, which is forever a legend to men. To some, it has been like the climbing of Everest on a good day, something of a combination of luck and daring, and most dangerous if those men don’t understand that the real danger is upon them now. Because in receiving lies more danger than in giving away. So that there are really two Paths open to Men in Love.

The second approach is like climbing the North Face. And the Right One is the ultimate reward. And yet, once conquered, with a landscape of rocks and clouds, what is left of the magic moment of the climbing? Only the real lover understands that the Right One has multiple faces, of Anger and of Sorrow, of Pleasure and of Contempt. It is the climbing which transforms both the climber and the mountain, giving value and purpose to both of them.

The Right One is spanning multiple dimensions, of time and space. My heart is beating a little more, and my running is more difficult, as my soul has grown out. My eyes have the penetrating gaze of the Beholder, as if I had to observe twice, or examine with more attention a world, which has remained so much the same, and yet which is transformed now that I know the Right One is there.

To R.E. Howard the Right One was eternal and yet singular, as if the hunt had been on for ages, as if all my ancestors had fought and looked for that ultimate moment of reconciliation with the soul mate. Yes, of reconciliation, because the Right One is not conquered, it is loved for the sake of her. Men betray themselves with the vanity of possession and the cruel illusion of sexuality, but this is because they are afraid to admit that they are expanding their ego in the void.

The Right One is and remains a totemic figure, combining the tenderness of the Mother, the complicity of the Sister and the loveliness of a Spring morning, as Sun is illuminating dew in the glen of a forest. To Dante it was the haunting figure of a young woman of Florence to whom he dedicated his life, as she died at 22. The Right One is devastating as you know intimately that she is here to reveal the man you truly are beyond the veil of appearances.

Old or young, rich or poor, crippled, coward or hero, the Right One will reveal the true man who is hiding beneath the appearances you have so carefully erected.Burn what you have adored, and Adore what you have burned. And the marvelous thing is that the Right One is innocent. Unlike a Pagan God who requires sacrifices, the Right One is for everyone without any distinction, of race, religion, fortune or education.

Let us learn about the true happiness of two poor people, man and woman, but whose love has built the most marvelous palace to shelter them. In that night of rain and of thunder, they will remain entwined and even if gurgling water will reach their feet, they will rejoice and share the smile of complicity.

Why poor? Alas, Reader, because in terms of love, there can be only poor people. Do you really believe that the rich ones will care about incandescent gold, when the loved one is at stake? Gold will become dull, and cold. Love is the great principle upon which the world has been built, and the very principle which is violated.

You may object that my conception of the Right One is the one of a Dreamer. What is a Dream if it is not continuity of our Life? It is because we are dreaming that we are alive. And no, I am not a Dreamer. The Right One is not a Dream, but a Reality, which is escaping the narrow Diktat of statistics. There is no technology to chart that Land of Her.

The Path to Her are changing, and yet you cannot get lost as long as your heart is walking in harmony with Hers. Words are not exchanged, but engraved. To reach for Her is marvelously simple, as is Pre-Socratic mathematics when Philosophers challenged the world with a simple wood stick, or the observation of a shadow moving in the depth of a well. There is no strategy, as you cannot win, or lose. There can be only a marvelous recapitulation in the sense of the Holy Scriptures.

Simplicity is the Art of Understanding. Simplicity is the language of the Right One. Details are not necessary, even if simplicity has its own challenges. When you see a child running, it sounds so simple, so natural. And yet the neuronal network would highlight Times Square for a thousand years. Like the hand of Hokusai, that simple line of China ink on paper must represent a whole world.

Life eventually becomes a line connecting the multiple levels of Nature, from the Origins to the Future, a prefiguration of Cosmos. From the spiral of DNA to cognitive recapitulation, the circle has been drawn as Soul Mates unite.

I love you. This sounds so simple to say, but to the Right One it is more than a simple line of text from a dilettante, it is an act of faith. Let us change that Cogito Ergo Sum which is so dreary into a I Love So I am. Beyond words, I Love You has all the marvelous simplicity of a gift freely given to the Right One.

So Who is the Right One? She is the One who is bringing flowers to bloom as she is walking the green meadow of your heart. Both inspiring and unchallenging, She is pregnant with the totemic duality of the Eternal and Unique. To reach for Her is to engage yourself in a Journey with your Fathers and Mothers proudly singing the Fairness and Fundamental Goodness of the World.

She has the equivocal beauty of Botticelli’s Primavera, She is truly part of the cycle, of Cosmos, between the cold of a deep sleep, to the Renaissance of hope and fruitful delivery of Summer, lest time is come for sleep again in the glory of Automn.

The Right One is Living Truth.

And as Richard Llewellyn wrote so magnificently, the Right One is both salvation and fulfillment in a time of goodness:

But you have gone now, all of you, that were so beautiful when you were quick with life. Yet not gone, for you are still a living truth inside my mind. How Green is my Valley, then, and the Valley of them that have gone.

FREDERIC W. ERK