Out of the Cave

The person who climbs up and out of the cavern, shrugging off the shackles of an old and shadowed life, will receive as a reward for skinned limbs and tattered clothes a view of The Truth, enlightened by The Sun, which is Good itself.

This person has three paths to choose between:

First, he or she could shrink back from the light, which burns the eyes at first.  "After all, in the cave we were safe.  We were warm.  Nothing ever bothered us, and nothing ever challenged us.  Shadow isn't so bad.  At least it doesn't burn me to my deepest being as does this Truth and Goodness."  This person will retreat from whence he or she came, trying to set the painful beauty behind them.  They re-shackle themselves gladly and sit in complacency once more, choosing to forever view shadows on a wall rather than the Sun.

Secondly, one could choose to embrace the Truth and Goodness to one's fullest capacity.  Once one's eyes are accustomed to the Light, an entire new reality opens up before them.  It is like being born again into a world of grass, rain, laughter, and most of all Light which illumines all.  This person will quickly forget the shadows that he or she once considered real and drink in the newness of life.  It seems that this would be the ideal, but there remains yet another road.

The last path begins when, after one has experienced the glory and joy of Truth and Goodness and frolicked in reality for a time, the person turns back to the cave.  But unlike the first person, he or she does not go back to stay.  They go back into the cave, forsaking for a time the new vitality they have discovered, in order to rescue their brethren who still fumble at chains in the darkness.  This person will attempt to free others as he himself was freed.  He will attempt to share the Truth.  But herein lies the greatest danger: when men born and raised in darkness hear of this Sun of Goodness, they take it as myth, as child's fantasy.  "How could anything exist beyond these shadows?  That road is steep and leads to nowhere.  You are mad," they scoff at their would-be deliverer.  They even put the person who selflessly bears this Truth to death.

If we have been enlightened by the glory of Goodness itself, do we have the bravery to descend once more out of love for our companions?  Can we keep our feet in the shadows and resist the return of our own shackles?  Above all, would we die to transmit the life-giving Truth to every man, woman, and child who lives in darkness?

The Sun Himself did.