The man hated the bright burning thing in the sky. It hovered over him all
day long, no matter where he went. He hated the Sun’s harsh light, the heat
it created and the shadows it cast on the earth around him.He felt like the
sun was stealing something from him, separating him from things when what he
craved was unity.
At least at night everything looks the same, he thought. hat’s why he liked
the darkness. The Sun had become his enemy.
One day, unable to stand it any longer, he decided to dig a hole to protect
himself from the intolerable rays of sunlight. His skin, which had been
burned a deep brown, began to turn white again, and the shadows of day
ceased to annoy him. But then, sitting in his hole, he realized that the sun
continued to flood his hiding place with light from above, and that his
shelter was even brighter than the land outside.
He went back to work and had soon dug himself a tunnel and a cave. And there
he finally found protection from the Sun. He spent years in his hole,
meditating in solitude, in the coolness of the dark where the Sun never
penetrated. Up on the surface other men grew food and warmed themselves in
the heat of the all-giving star. They saw the Sun as a good and protecting
God. The Sun was their ally as they learned to tame its extremes. They lived
through the seasons, one after the other.
All were thankful for the Sun’s presence, all except for the man who wanted
to avoid the light and the contrasts it created. In the end the poor hermit
perished in his cave, in darkness, in the calmness and unity of the shadows,
but desperate and alone.
And after he died the people didn’t even have to dig a grave for him.
It was already there…
Moral of the Story
Accepting people’s differences, living with others and their strange habits
and sometimes incomprehensible behaviour, can be difficult. We are often
tempted to retreat like a hermit into the calmness of home, into the
shadows. But life is composed of diversity, of exchange and of change. When
you cut yourself off from your friends, your neighbours and your community,
you also lose a part of yourself.
Popular Posts