Dating : The Old Man and the Stone

I’m late as usual and as I fumble to find my keys it occurs to me that today is my birthday. I immediately think of Pink Floyd lyrics regarding a lost decade. I could feel dissociation descending upon me, tugging and shoving my mental focus, like an ocean tide handling a ship without sails. I looked out the window and found a point of interest to give my eyes so my attention could travel inward upon itself. Taking my consciousness to a place I could not find while surviving in wakefulness. This is a paradox of seeming insignificance hiding in the open. In my dreamlike stance I imagined a young man walking away from everything he knew, and all that knew him. Off toward uncertainty and fear he marched as though he were seeking restitution of some unknown injury. While carrying out his aimless pursuit he was stopped dead in his tracks when a thought emerged from his actions as a consequence. The idea was more like a question and it enthralled the young man inciting a maniacal obsession. Once it was born it stood before his mind at all times and separated him from his prior ideas. It mocked, laughed, and ridiculed him with the intent to drive him mad! The young man exhausted by his own device needed to rest and came upon a large flat boulder that was very smooth and comfortable. He felt the stone and for a moment found relief from his perplexing dilemma. After a few moments clarity opened his eyes and he understood the answer to his question. Unfortunately the lad was very superstitious in his ignorance and decided the stone was a deciding factor in his enlightenment. The man never left the stone and instead became a spectacle to others. People heard about the man on the stone and were curious as to what this person claimed. They gathered around him asking many questions but he answered none of them. Through gossip the people created a structure in him that was not real and as a result they saw a man that was not there, and failed to see the real man. Year after year people would bring him food, treasures, and more if only he would tell them what they wanted to know, but he never would. Until one day when a child came to ask him where he was going. The now old man hobbled up from the stone and glared at the child with contempt, but the frown quickly turned into a smile. “I’m going where I like and I like where I’m going” the old man whispered. The child looked at him with confusion and then looked at the ground. He asked what it meant but the old man had already turned and hobbled away. The child sat down on the stone and felt it was warm where the old man had been sitting. He looked around and saw all the things a person would need to live comfortably. Just then a person exclaimed that the man on the stone was gone and had magically turned himself into a child to begin the mystery again. The child immediately understood what the old man meant and took up his throne as the new king. Shit I’m late.