It was the end of another long and tiring day. The sun had begun its descent in the sky hours ago and the moon was claiming the space now. The first few jewels of the night's starry crown were beginning to shine. All around the commotion of the day was also fading away. If you were to look up and down the dusty road where the Man stood, the path itself was disappearing into the darkening horizon. Quiet was the song being sung and its melody made the Man feel lonely.
To himself he said, "If I am to be ready for tomorrow I must stop now and look into my sack." With that he walked a short way into the wayside and began to make his camp for the night. The Man picked a suitable spot with not too many stones on the ground, a few, but none very large. "This will do if it must." He said to himself and began picking up the stones from the ground. As he looked in the fading light he tried to nourish himself on an old crust of bread. Was it spoiled now? He couldn't tell. It had been a very long time since that loaf or any other that he had consumed had been fresh. Dry and hard, and covered with the road was how this crust tasted. "Just a few bites and that will do. This was a fine loaf when it was first given to me. Fine indeed." The Man was now on his hands and knees pushing the stones into a pile. He paused, and looked up into the dark sky. "When did I get this loaf?" He wondered, "Who was it that gave me this food?"
It was there on his hands and knees, staring at the growing pile of rocks and thinking of bread, that he heard the first sounds of the Visitor coming along the way. It was very strange to hear what sounded like another once the Man had moved off the path and out of the way, but slowly a figure approached and took form near the Man.
"Good evening." Said the Visitor to the Man. "Indeed?" Was the only response from the Man. The Visitor looked slowly around to take in the Man and the pile of stones. "Is this your lodging for the night?" The Visitor asked looking into the Mans face. "Yes, it will be" the Man said, "as soon as I have cleared the ground of these stones for my bed. I have no food for you stranger, I have only enough for my own needs." The Visitor continued to look at the Man and told him that this was fine, that he had his own bread and meat. The Visitor pulled a large round loaf from a bag that was over his shoulder to show the Man and a napkin that the Visitor said held fishes.
"Perhaps I could build a fire and we both could warm ourselves while we eat." The Visitor addressed the Man and with that the Visitor walked into the dark to gather sticks and branches for the fire. The Man eased himself onto the dirt as the Visitor could be heard picking up fuel for the fire. The Man could still see that loaf and the fish the visitor produced and wondered if there might be enough that he could taste a fresh morsel and be refreshed. The Man pushed that thinking aside as the Visitor returned with an arm load of wood. " If you must build a fire, build there and not here where I have been clearing these stones." The man said firmly, trying to cover his previous imaginings of refreshing with a strong demeanor.
The Visitor quickly and efficiently arranged the wood and in a moment had a small fire licking away at the wood and lighting up the surrounding area. Once the Visitor was certain that the fire was going to burn on its own he turned to Man. Surprisingly when he looked at the Man in the growing light, the Man was scooping up the stones from the ground and placing them into his Traveling sack. The Visitor quietly watched until the last small stone was picked up from the ground and placed inside the sack.
"Friend, I am your guest in this place" the Visitor said, " but if I may inquire; why did you put those stones into your sack?" The Man rose up so quickly that a haze of dust from the ground followed him up and now curled and fell slowly back to the ground. "These stones were in the way of my place of rest and once collected they must be removed." "Why?" Asked the Visitor earnestly. "Because I may travel this road and may again come to this spot and need to rest here, so I cannot leave them. I take them to be sure that the stones will not disturb my rest in the future." "What about your rest now?" Asked the Visitor. "You have been moving and piling stones in the dark for some time and now the hour of resting is far spent. It will not be very long before the sun will reclaim the sky and we both must be going on."
The Man looked at the Visitor and his shoulders seemed to sag. "I dont ever seem to get enough rest. There are just too many stones in this world. If it were not for the stones I would be a different Man; able to move freely and progress on my journey. But the stones are everywhere and, well, they must picked up." The Visitor was seated now near the fire and was pulling the loaf apart for a meal. With his head bowed he gave thanks and then looked up at the Man. "Does that mean that your traveling sack has more stones in it than those you just picked up?" The Visitor asked. "Yes.Yes indeed it does." The Man replied. "How can you get so many stones into that bag? You must have other things in there? Needful things?" The Man looked down at his feet and quietly replied, "Once perhaps, but I have left many things along the road to make room for these stones."
"Show me these stones would you?" The Visitor inquired. The Man was a bit startled by the request since no one ever really wanted to know about what it was he carried and why it bowed him so low as he traveled. "Why yes, I will show you." And with that the Man let the heavy sack slide off his shoulder and onto the ground with a thump. The Man slowly tried to stand straight but it was painful so he gave in to the stoop of his back and shoulders and sat down beside his sack. One by one the Man pulled stones from the sack. Some were quite small and others were large. Some were smooth and others were jagged with points and sharp edges.
The Man scooped up a pile of small pea sized stones and showed them to the Visitor. "These are stones that over time have found their way into my shoes and caused me discomfort." "You wear no shoes now," said the Visitor. "No. I left them along the way to make room for more stones." The Man pulled several large stones out and arranged them for the Visitor. "These were stones upon which I laid my head when I would rest and they were of no comfort to me and only robbed me of my sleep." The Visitor questioned, "You were gathering stones all night when I arrived. When would you have finally put your head down on a stone or the ground?" The Man was speaking softer and softer now and said, "Well you see, since I could not carry many more stones of this size I reasoned that it was best for me to forgo sleeping. That way I would not pick up another hard wretched stone from the ground so that some other weary traveler might avoid it in his time of rest".
"Are there any more stones in that sack?" Asked the visitor. "Yes a few." The Man replied. Holding up one, and then another, and another, the man said, "These are stones that were thrown at me in anger and some in error. Some struck me and others did not. I picked them up so that they could not be thrown again." Slowly now the man began to pick the stones up and arrange them back in the sack. He arranged them in such a manner that the Visitor was certain the Man had pulled them out and put them back into the sack many times. Each one seemed to have a specific place and each one was picked and placed carefully back. The Man sensed the Visitor's curiosity and said, "You see I have taken the stones out several times in order to better arrange them for my journey. I know each one quite well and each one has its own place against my back now." The Man tried to force a laugh at that statement but it caught in his throat.
The sun was coloring the horizon pink now and the fire was burned down to embers. The Visitor was quiet as the Man stood up and with a great groan hoisted the sack back up to his shoulder. The sack was so very heavy against his back. The Man looked back toward the road and then to the Visitor. "I should be getting started now." He said with a sigh. The Visitor spoke to the Man. Was the Visitor's voice always so calming? As he spoke it seemed to the Man that the sack got a little lighter. "Surely you could stay just a short while longer with me and share my bread and these simple fishes?" The Visitor offered. "And you should put down your sack while you eat. There is no need to carry that burden any longer than you have to."
The power of the Visitor's last words shook the Man. He let the sack drop again to the ground and this time the sound was like a crashing wave or thunder clap. Heavy had that sack become. As the Man sat near the Visitor he took a piece of break and fish and quickly consumed them both. The visitor offered more and the Man tried to refuse. However, the Visitor insisted and held them out to the Man. It was then that the Man noticed the marks on the Visitor's hands. Thanking the Visitor the man took the food and this time ate more slowly, savoring each bite. Fresh bread! How did this Visitor have fresh bread to offer? No matter; it was delicious.
"If I were to offer to carry your stones, would you give them to me?" The Visitor asked. The question shocked the Man so that he nearly choked on the food. Give him the stones?!? The Man had spent much time picking them up and carrying them about. He was certain that he was doing the right thing and that others were helped by his sacrifice, even if they did not know it. But no one had ever offered to so much as pick up the sack let alone carry it for the Man. "How do you know that you can lift and carry that sack?" The Man asked. "It really is quite heavy." "I can see that from the effect it has had on you, your life, and your body. But I would not offer if I could not carry them." The Man was beginning feel a wave of excitement. "How long will you carry them for me and how long will you be traveling with me?" He asked. "I will take them so that you will never have to carry them again, but I will not be going down the path you are on today. Maybe tomorrow, but not today."
The Man panicked and he reached for the sack to pull it close. The Visitor's calm voice spoke again. "In that sack are stones that annoyed you, robbed you of your rest and health, that were hurled against you, and stones that have battered your heart and body. Which stone in your sack is worth carrying further any more?" The Visitor's question cut through every layer of self that the Man had built up. In an instant he saw the great burden for what it was and wanted to be released from it. "None." Said the Man. "Not one." With that the Visitor reached out and took the sack of stones from the Man.
Like the dawning of the day the heart and spirit of the Man rose up within him. It must be the bread that was shared with me the Man thought. No, he said to himself, it was that cursed sack and all the stones. Being free from them was what lifted his heart. Both the Man and Visitor were now standing at the road's edge. "I will be with you again." The Visitor said. "Go along your way and let your body heal." With these few words both started down the road toward their destination. The Man was almost running. He felt so freed from the burden of the stones. Suddenly, he realized that he had not thanked the Visitor for freeing him from the burden. When he turned to shout his thanks, the Visitor was not to be seen.
The Man was only sad for a moment. The Visitor had said that they would be together again and in his heart he knew that this promise was true. So with a joy and lightness not felt for many years the Man turned and headed toward his destination.
You know when you are a kid it seems like almost every day some thing comes to you that is amazing. One of the things that I was simply amazed with was a thing called a Mobius Strip. From Wikipedia: The Mobius Strip is is a surface with only one side and only one boundary component. A model can easily be created by taking a paper strip and giving it a half-twist, and then joining the ends of the strip together to form a loop. If an ant were to crawl along the length of this strip, it would return to its starting point having traversed every part of the strip without ever crossing an edge.
