A Hole Inside Man

A boy once asked his father why we are here. He laughed and told his son this. A fish is less then man and yet it is content to merely be a fish, a lion is stronger than man and yet is content to merely be a lion, and an elephant is wiser than man and yet it is content to merely be an elephant.

 

            They are born fulfilled, live fulfilled, and taste their last breath fulfilled. All the creatures of the land, sea, and air were made to be complete. Man was made to be empty. We take the stone of the earth to be strong, we take the hides of animals to be warm, and we take the hooves of horses to be fast.

 

            We will be empty as long as we are still called man. It is our strength, it is our beauty, and it is what makes us unique. Some would say this is a curse upon man, but they would be wrong. We bring our emptiness to everything we touch. We see clay and color and we make it into art, we hear our voices and we turn them into stories and language, and we see any mystery and we hope to make it understood to all.

 

            Our emptiness makes us want to create, and it compels us to destroy. If you are ever to be wise son you need to first see the emptiness inside yourself, and ask others to see it as well. For the wise do not lament the nature of man. They seek only to understand it. 

 

            The boy then turned to his father, and asked this. If we will always be empty then how will we ever live in a better world? His father smiled, and told him this.

 

            Most of us would love to see a better world, and some of us would love to see a worse world. We spend our youth wanting to change the world, the mid of our lives hoping to add to it, and the last of our years wishing we had more time. It is few among us that realize the greatest truth. That whatever world you hope for. Man will still occupy that world.

 

            Countless empty creatures hoping to find fulfillment by making everything but themselves complete. It’s not the world that needs to be better. It’s the way we look at it that needs to change.