WORTH READING 6 Dec 2005
The Man Who Didn't Like The Sun
The man hated the bright burning thing in the sky. It hovered over himallday long, no matter where he went. He hated the Sun's harsh light, theheatit created and the shadows it cast on the earth around him.He felt likethesun was stealing something from him, separating him from things whenwhat hecraved was unity.
"At least at night everything looks the same," he thought. hat's why heliked the darkness. The Sun had become his enemy.
One day, unable to stand it any longer, he decided to dig a hole toprotecthimself from the intolerable rays of sunlight. His skin, which had beenburned a deep brown, began to turn white again, and the shadows of dayceased to annoy him. But then, sitting in his hole, he realized that thesuncontinued to flood his hiding place with light from above, and that hisshelter was even brighter than the land outside.
He went back to work and had soon dug himself a tunnel and a cave. Andtherehe finally found protection from the Sun. He spent years in his hole,meditating in solitude, in the coolness of the dark where the Sun neverpenetrated. Up on the surface other men grew food and warmed themselvesinthe heat of the all-giving star. They saw the Sun as a good andprotectingGod. The Sun was their ally as they learned to tame its extremes. Theylivedthrough the seasons, one after the other.
All were thankful for the Sun's presence, all except for the man whowantedto avoid the light and the contrasts it created. In the end the poorhermitperished in his cave, in darkness, in the calmness and unity of theshadows,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 strangehabitsand sometimes incomprehensible behaviour, can be difficult. We are oftentempted to retreat like a hermit into the calmness of home, into theshadows. But life is composed of diversity, of exchange and of change.Whenyou cut yourself off from your friends, your neighbours and yourcommunity,you also lose a part of yourself.


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