Hello Kristen,
Have a little read of this:
"Once upon a time a young traveller was walking along the highway and he
happened upon an old man sitting by the road mumbling to himself. Well, the
traveller, filled with curiosity, just had to ask the old man what the
problem was. So the old man looked up with weary eyes and fixed them hard
and coldly on his new found visitor - then merely dropped them again just as
quick."
"Well morning soon passed and along with it the afternoon too, while the
younger man patiently waited for his new companion to snap out of his
fixation with mumbling. The stars were dancing in the sky before the old un
finally looked up and fixed his icy gaze once more on the inquisitive
youngster."
" 'Do you know what the impossible utterance is youngun?' he hollered and
once more dropped his head, before the traveller could muster up a thought,
let alone a reply! Night passed swiftly and the morning dew covered the
land with its fresh splendour, until the Sun chased it away like cats
pursuing mice in a farmyard."
" The young man had just stopped watching for signs of life when the old un
got up, dusted himself off and started to walk away. Gripped by this surge
of activity the younger traveller got up and chased after his fleeing
companion... ' And where are you off to?' He abruptly enquired while
struggling to keep up with the older man."
"Stopping briefly and with the eye of someone stopped in the middle of an
important activity by a trivial thing of little consequence the old man
replied, 'Well I guess you have been taught enough, so it is time to go.' "
" 'Taught enough? Hey, you didn't teach me anything' the young man scoffed
as he left the older one to carry on his way."
"Now forty years passed and the younger traveller had became older and wiser
in the ways of the world. His life had taught him many things, though the
episode with the old man by the road still taunted him in his sleep. He was
pondering these things by the roadside, when he realised that a young
traveller had come along. Angry at being disturbed he fixed a steely gaze
on this abrupt intrusion and carried on pondering the past."
"It was night time before he realised that the young traveller was still
there and morning before he considered him again. Giving it little thought
he picked up his things and started once more on the road that he had
travelled so many times before. Suddenly the younger man was beside him,
with eyes full of barely concealed anger asking, 'So, where are you
going?'."
"Our older man chuckled inwardly, surprised at this response and suddenly
thought back to the time he had said the same kind of thing to a traveller
all those years before. Remembering the words of the old man back then he
repeated them again now, 'Well I guess you have been taught enough, so it is
time to go.' "
" 'What did you teach me, you silly old beggar?' Instead of walking on as
the old man had done to him, our kindly traveller turned to the younger man
and fixed him a caring gaze. Inwardly he pondered the reaction he should
give. Should he tell this young man the secrets that he had learnt, the
ways that experience had helped him time and time again?"
"Then he realised what that old man had meant all those years before. By
being 'taught enough' the old man meant that some things nobody could teach.
Only experience could empower us to understand the deeper things that life
has to offer. That is what he had meant by the 'impossible utterance',
because nobody can truly give another experience by word of mouth - it had
to come from ones own journey through life. Many a man has tried to teach
others from their experience, but experience itself showed that this was
sadly often a waste of words - because nobody can teach another the true
rightfulness of our actions."
"Now our travellor could see that by saying 'so it is time to go' the old
man had not been talking about himself. He had in fact indicated that the
young man should move on and start living his life, accumulating his own
chest of life's abundant treasures."
"Reflecting on this he merely turned from the younger man and carried on his
way, leaving the now fuming youngster in his wake...."
All the very best....
David Hinsley,
AKA - Sicilian Dragon.
