The Test

A Children's Story

A man was walking down a long and twisting road. 
And the road was unpaved so that in his walking he began to 
raise much dust. And the sun was hot, so that the dust began 
to stick to him and to cake his skin and his clothing so that
 soon one could not tell where his clothes ended and his skin
 began. And the man asked the of the dust:
"Why do you plague me? Can you not see that my road is long
 and arduous? Why do you plague me?" And the dust said to him:
 "Be glad of me! Think of me not as a plague, for do I not keep
 the sun from burning you? Do I not keep the gnats from stinging 
you? Be glad of me."  And the man grew glad of his coat of dust,
 for it kept out some of the hurts of his road. And so the man 
kept walking, and the sun did not scorch him and the gnats
did not gnaw him.  But soon the road roughened and grew pitted 
with great gullies and chasms that were filled with many sharp 
rocks and there were also many loose ones.  Now, the man could
 walk around some of these gullies, but many times the dirt was 
false and loosened beneath his feet and he was cast into many pits.
  Some of the gullies were great chasms that flung themselves
 entirely across his road so that the man was forced to climb
 down into them.  But always in these gullies, the man found the
 dirt in the sides to be treacherous, and it too would loosen,
 and again he would be cast to the bottom, fearing  greatly for
 his safety.  Soon the man grew tired of falling down and 
climbing up, for no two gullies were quite the same, and 
great care and precise movements were needed by the man in his
 various ascensions to the roads surface.  And the man began to 
curse the gullies and to bemoan hi evil fortune until he finally
 asked of the gullies: "Why do you persecute me so?" And the 
gullies replied: "We do not persecute you. Rather, we toughen you,
 and build your endurance, and your capacity to observe, for
 soon you will be tested a great test that you must not fail." 
 And the man grew glad of the gullies and their teachings, and 
her grew to navigate them more quickly, and in this manner, 
they soon passed.  Now it came to be that soon after the man 
had climbed from a great gully that the road became paved and 
bordered with great trees. And the trees were watered with clear
 running streams and many animals lived in that place and 
many birds also, and flowers grew there in great profusion.  
But the man, seeing that the road was paved, began to hasten, 
and then to run, for he was weary of his journey.  And so he 
did not rest in the shade of the trees, nor did he drink of
 the streams,nor wonder at the animals, or the songs of the
 birds, nor did he breathe of the flowers.  But the man 
cracked his coat of dust, and the man in his running jogged
 loose great pieces of it, and it fell away, leaving him exposed.  
And the man, because of his running, soon came out of the
 beautiful place that he had been in, and the road became uneven
 and no trees would grow there.  But the man had become tough 
because of the gullies and he was able to run a great ,
 long way into that place.  But the running made the man grow
 tired and he did not watch the road and he tripped over a rock
 that was sticking up and he  fell down into the road. Now,
 the swamps on either side of the road Were home to many gnats
 and stinging insects and they saw the man lying in the road
 and they rose up against him and stung him many times.
And there were no trees growing in the swamps and the sun 
was able to beat fully upon the man.  Now, the man had shaken 
loose his coat of dust and the mans had run many, many miles 
and was tired and the sun could now burn him, and it did, 
and the gnats could now sting him , and they did, and the
 man was made very ill.  And so the man lay there in his road,
 and after a time he began to crawl forward, for it was it
was in his mind that he had run many, many miles into the swamps,
 but it might not be as many to come out the other side. 
 Indeed, it may have been that he was right.  But it was a
 long time before the man could start walking again.  Yes,
 it was a very long time. 

Cliff Lake
3/15/94

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