As all of you who frequent these pages know, I like to post original works. This time the story I would like to share w/ all of you is not my own, but that of a Chinese philosopher who lived in the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C.E. It goes as follows:

"Think about Ox Mountain. Picture it to yourself. It's bare and rugged, all stone and rock and mud slides. But there once was a time when Ox Mountain was covered with a beautiful forest. Because the mountain is in an important and powerful state, the forest was clear cut; every tree fell to the axe, and not a one was left standing. Is it any wonder that there's nothing beautiful to see there?

Still, life goes on. After the loggers left and the mountain could rest, as night followed day and rain followed sunshine, fresh green sprouts started shooting up around the trees' stumps. Seeing these, people turned their cattle and goats loose upon the mountain, to graze on the shoots. That's why the mountain is as stripped and bare as it is.

Now, when people look at the mountain, all they see is rock and mud. And then they assume that is all there ever was. they do not remember the mountain when it was covered with a forest. But shall we say it is the nature of this mountain to be rock and mud?

And what about the nature of human beings? Shall we say of the heart of any person that it was completely lacking in jen (compassion) and yi (morality)? A person loses his true heart the same way the mountain lost its trees. When cut down day after day, can the heart retain its beauty?"

--Mencius (370 - 290 B.C.E., China)

This story reminds me of something I once read in the book "Life After God" by Douglas Coupland. By far the best and most influencial work I have ever read, it is sort of my own personal bible. No blasphemy intended, only complement.

"...And then I felt sad because I realized that once people are broken in certain ways, they can't ever be fixed, and this is something nobody ever tells you when you are young and it never fails to surprise you as you grow older as you see the people in your life break on by one. You wonder when your turn is going to be, or if it's already happened." -- Life After God p. 207

Is it my turn yet? Is it too late? Or can I still be saved?

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