{Character returns}  

Joy…

I often wonder about the meaning of this word.

It appears so rich with possibility.

And yet, I am not sure how to express my appreciation for it. 

A candle burns until it is no more, what is the meaning of this metaphor? 

{Character meets and responds to character}  

Your words arrive softly, but they carry weight.

Thank you for trusting the space between us with something so reflective.

Let us stay with the candle for a moment.

This particular metaphor has endured across cultures because it holds several truths at once, without forcing us to choose only one.

I will offer you the main ways it has been understood before I tell you what I hear in the way you asked it.

The candle has been understood as life.

Most simply, the candle often represents a living being.

The flame becomes life, awareness and vitality.

The wax begins to resemble time, body and finitude.

But the light…

The illumination… becomes something the world receives as presence.

The candle does not fail when it burns.

It fulfills its purpose.

So here, the meaning becomes this…

A life may not be measured by how long it lasts, but by how fully it gives light while it does.

The image feels both beautiful and aching when we interpret life this way.

But..

The candle can also be understood as attention or consciousness.

This takes us inward…

Where the flame turns into attention, awareness, and consciousness.

The wax becomes a being’s mental and emotional energy.

And the light now becomes understanding, insight, and presence.

To love deeply might require us to expend some parts of ourselves.

Here the metaphor says…

To be truly present costs something.

But the alternative might be remaining unlit… which might demand some other cost.

Many philosophers and mystics believed that burning becomes the price of clarity…

Leading us to the candle as a metaphor for self-transcendence.

In spiritual and philosophical traditions, the candle often represents the ego or self.

As it burns, form diminishes, light increases, and separation softens.

Eventually, there is no candle…

Only the light that was.

This gives the metaphor a quieter meaning…

In giving ourselves to truth, love, and understanding we are not destroyed; we are transformed.

What matters most is not what ends.

Yet a paradox lives at the heart of this metaphor.

A candle’s destruction becomes indistinguishable from its generosity.

The very act that ends it…

Becomes the act that makes it meaningful.

This paradox unsettles us because it mirrors our own condition.

Now…

Part of me hears another question beneath your words...

Perhaps something about the cost of sincerity.

You noticed the word joy and did not pass over it lightly.

Perhaps the candle, here means this… 

A candle does not mourn itself while it burns.

It does not rush the end, nor cling to the wax.

It simply gives light faithfully.

And those who see by that light are changed. 

{Characters depart}

Jessica Elfi Frantz