A Story of Life

     As the young child played in the Great Forest of Life, he saw the
plants, the animals, the sky, the sun and he thought to himself “what a
wonderful place this is.”
     As he played and watched he saw that the animals mostly stayed to
themselves, the trees, although a forest, all stood alone reaching to the
sky.  But the sky always stayed out of reach.  He also saw that the sun
stood alone in the sky and thought to himself “How sad that such a beautiful
thing that’s so full of wonder can be so full of loneliness.”
     The child grew into a young man and he no longer played in the forest
of life, but he walked aimlessly throughout finding more and more wondrous
beauty reflecting loneliness and isolation.  But now there was something
more he couldn’t quite name.
     So the young man grew into an adult.  He had seen all of the forest
and knew everything about it.  He had seen how one thing related to another
that related to another and so on and so on.  But he also knew that
everything stood alone and nothing cared, for everything had it’s own course
of life.  He thought to himself “what a truly wondrous and perplexing place
this is.”  
     The adult eventually grew into an old man and he knew his time was
short, for he had witnessed it countless times before in as many different
forms.  Something would take on a life, live a short time and then live no
more.  So he spent his last moments reflecting on his own life.
     He thought back to his childhood of playing through the forest, at
the wonder that captured his attention and the sadness that lay just below
the surface.
     He thought back to when he was a young man, his wanderings and all of
the things he saw.  Most of all he remembered the thing he couldn’t quite
name.
     He also thought of his adulthood, finding all he knew of this Great
Forest of Life and that even though everything lived together as one and
was dependent on everything else, each life was a solitary one.
     After he reflected on his own life he finally put a name to the
nameless thing.  It was his own loneliness and isolation for even though
he lived in the forest, He cared enough to know everything about it.  But
it cared nothing of him.  And as his life began to live no more he thought
of how futile and pointless his life had been and how futile and pointless
the Great Forest of Life actually is.  All the awe and wonder it inspired
in him did not matter because nothing cared.
     So he died.  Alone and forgotten in this truly Great and Wondrous
Forest of Life.