Ascending & Dissenting

M.C. Escher’s Asending and Descending

In Ascending and Descending, M.C. Escher draws us a castle of sorts, roofed with an impossible staircase, that enrobed figures are dutifully marching up and down on, in separate lines. Forever trapped in their march, no one is moving onward. I think of them often, whenever the walls feel like they’re closing in. But paradox is also opportunity: You want the snake to eat its tail.

Escher also drew two outlier figures in the image. These two figures, released from the tyranny of the stairs, have very different paths. One looks upon the poor marchers from a lower balcony, watching them while leaning back against the railing. The other, at the very bottom, sits on the castle’s front staircase.

This second figure is the one that interests me. Perhaps our figure now sits at the end of their universe, but unlike the comrades above, or the other outlier on the balcony, the figure on the front steps is still searching for the horizon. Escher called these free people, saying they were too head-strong to be among the laborers on the stairs, but would eventually see the err in their non-conformity and give it up to return to the cult. On the worst days, I remind myself of the figure on the stairs, contemplating what’s beyond his existence of this mysterious space, and aspire to his openness and curiosity.

Whether or not we’ve reached the end of the universe, with purpose or without, we must never stop looking for the next horizon beyond the castle stairs.