A World That Exists Beyond the Walls We Build
This one story that I read in high school has stuck with me for the last 20 years
It has literally changed my life and the way I think.
I’m not going to quote it, that’s been done already.
I’ll tell it as I recall it and as it relates to the world you and I live in today…
The story—
There’s a cave that people live in.
They were either born into it or brought into so young that they can’t remember anything other than the world in the cave.
In the cave they are chained up and cant move around other than to things right in front of them
While in the cave, they cant see the outside world.
They have no idea what it looks like, smells like, sounds like.
All they can see are shadows on the wall from what’s happening just outside the cave.
They have no concept of what’s actually happening so they make up names for the shadows they see and that becomes truth.
One day, a man breaks free of his chains and escapes the cave.
He ventures into the outside world and into the light.
The world he now sees is the truth.
The beauty is beyond imagination
The smells are wonderful
The sounds are music to his ears.
It’s unlike anything that he thought it was.
He has to bring this back to his friends and family in the cave and set them free.
He try’s to tell them about what he saw and they don’t believe him… they WONT believe him.
He tries to set them free and they refuse.
They are SAFE
They are SECURE
They have everything they need, why would they want more.
He tells them the real names of what they are seeing in the shadows. They refuse to believe even that.
The man did all he could to share with them what exists beyond the cave, but it fell on deaf ears.
…..
There’s so many ways to interpret this story.
Its origin is Plato’s allegory of the cave.
What this represents to me is the chains that are truly self imposed for most of us.
There’s a world that exists beyond a W2 and fancy perks.
Not everyone wants that world. I didn’t for a long time. And I don’t blame anyone that does.
But there IS a world beyond it. And I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t break free and venture out to discover what it’s really like.
I have never seen so many people in one place that feel the same way about the world outside the cave.
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