25 On Truth

And so a little boy asked directly:
Are you really a prophet?

To which he replied kindly:
Does it really matter?

But the hostile reaction from the crowd suggested that it did matter. The boy proceeded in accusing tones:
You keep letting us down.

To which he replied kindly:
I could say the same.

Whereupon followed a scene of general unrest, that elicited in the mind of the prophet unpleasant memories of the stoning incident. Somebody set somebody else’s hair on fire and the angry boy started kicking the oil drum. And the drum responded by moaning deeply.

The booming reverberations so pleased the child, that he began kicking harder and harder, and No one and his father were hanging on for dear life. It seemed that although they were kin, their circus-like balancing act was hopelessly out of synch. They were somehow working at cross purposes, inspite of their common objective, trying to save the wobbly drum from tipping into the ocean.

Seeking to regain control of the situation, the prophet screamed out:
Please, people, please. With two notable exceptions, I have told the truth in all things.

What are the exceptions?

Come on people. You must think for yourselves. I cannot live your lives for you. When a dung beetle emerges motherless, into the dawn of a new day, is it confused and helpless?

At least tell us this much. Is there any hope for humanity?

Look, essentially life is good. What else do you want to hear from me?

But your own life is a mess, the boy screamed.

That’s uncalled for. I’m doing alright, thank you very much, the prophet insisted.
I’ve been reunited with a son who still loves me, and our oil drum has not yet toppled into the drowning waves.

The little boy took the hint, and stopped kicking at the can.
But what of truth?, he still wanted to know.

To which the prophet replied:
We all live in a society we didn’t create, in a time and place we couldn’t choose, in a world we didn’t ask to be born into. And no matter how bad the situation, it will likely get worse, before it gets better. And with a shrug, looking out over the vast black sea, he added:
Perhaps the truth is out there. We all do our best to be good people most of the time. Something Jean Renoir once said remains profoundly true:
“In this world, there is one terrible thing, and that is that we all have our reasons.”

Go ask the shy man if he believes in free will. For shyness is nice, and shyness can stop you, from doing all the things in life you want to.