There is a story told in every age, in every land, of when the world was good, abundance flowed, and harmony prevailed. But then, the cord that held it all together snapped, and the beads of time flew far and wide.
In the story, a hero is called, or maybe a band of heroes, ordinary folk who don’t see themselves as particularly heroic. They are given an impossible task: if they can find what’s missing, the brokenness can be repaired, harmony restored, and the world will be set right. They may not understand the call, they may not fully believe it, but they start out anyhow because what else is there to do when you find a broken world but try to help, even if you’re not sure how?
They wander about, meeting odd people, falling into adventures and mishaps, triumphs and tragedies. Each event seems random, but offers a clue that brings them closer to discovering the reason for their journey. And in the end, they succeed. The world is made better, and they learn a little more about who they really are.
Maybe this is just a story, a fable we tell our children. Maybe we created the story to make sense of chaos, to hold things together with a thin glue of meaning, to fabricate a sense of purpose that is our comfort. That’s one way to explain it.
But to tell a story for so long, across ages and ages, since the dawn of human longing, there must be something more. A note that sounds so deep in our common psyche deserves a better answer, deserves our effort.
What can we take from the story? What response can we give that meets the weight of its history? To act as if it’s true, as if we are the heroes who are called, as if our adventures and mishaps, triumphs and tragedies, are the work that’s needed to repair the broken things we see. Whatever troubles we encounter, we face them stronger if we see ourselves in the grand story and look for the clues that will guide us next.
That seems to be the universal human call – to not settle for things as they are, but to make things better for those who come behind, and maybe by our action, inspire them to do the same.
Photo by NEOM on Unsplash