Visions of the Past and Future
I wrote the following vignette last winter while exploring the topic of my life purpose with my coach. It tries to capture the essence of what feels most alive for me at the moment through a brief impressionistic scene. I notice myself returning to it again and again so I thought it appropriate to share it with you.
Countless of millennia ago, a tribe gathers around a fire to listen to its aging shaman…
Throwing a handful of dust into the fire, the shaman recounts his final vision:
“I saw wise men in orange robes being cruelly killed with magical spears. I saw ancient writings left in the dust, wise words falling on deaf ears. Mighty tribes building abodes that touch the clouds, old people everywhere, elders nowhere. Messages from everywhere to anywhere moving in the blink of an eye. Shelters, robes, people, places looking entirely different every spring.
“I saw a mighty tree, reaching up to the sky. I saw thunder clouds gathering. And the tree was withering. Supporting its mighty bulk was but the tiniest of roots. Would it last the storm, only time would tell.
“That tree, my children, is our tribe, ages and ages hence.”
With great effort the old shaman rises up and lifts his gaze from the fire.
“When that time comes, I will not be here. By then, neither will you nor your great-grandchildren. By then our tools will be obsolete, our names and language long forgotten. But there is wisdom alive in this very moment, wisdom that can be carried on and refined, and transmitted to that day.
“Who of you will carry that torch?”
