Shackles

One free man, a man previously held his whole life in bondage, utters such a statement, “I have spent my life in the trenches where I was born. I have worn my entire life shackles, and perhaps will continue to wear them until nature frees me from their grasp. But know this! Though I was born into such an existence, my children will not be. I will satisfy these chains, but I will not pass them on. For though no one could free me from mine, I will free them from theirs”. And these words he uttered, having full trust in his intentions.

Well then, many years later a strange circumstance unraveled. This man, the one who uttered all those interesting sentiments, he sat there one day in his home. This home was, for a slave previously all his life (and still he wore his shackles), a significant accomplishment. And in his home he sat and thought about his speech from so many years ago. And he decided, on a whim, to see if after all this time he had achieved his goal, or was at least on the same path as he had previously intended.

He thought to his children who had no shackles, and to the rest of the community and people, who too, were for the most part without shackles. For in his mind he had practically accomplished all he set out to. But one thought kept destroying the satisfaction he was so close to culminating.

Now this thought that would not relent had to do with something his son had uttered to him. He said something to the tune of, “Though you say we have no chains, you were born with them. And even now you continue to wear them. For all you learned about life was how to exist in chains. So why do you not see that in return you have created a big chain around the world. The world shackled you, and even though you cannot see it, now you reciprocate the favor”. And after he remembered his son saying this, thoughts and images began to uncontrollably erupt in his mind.

He thought about all those he knew and how they spent their lives. He saw that all of them worked. Not like he had to, beckoning to every whim from his master, rearranging his life for his master, suffering through such labor for the meager means to survive, embracing scoundrel virtues and debasing his values for his master, for his livelihood. No. No. NO! The people he knew were without shackles! So their lives must be better than was his. As a slave’s was!

Then, all of a sudden, with every current realization wiped clean from his mind, he began to think deeply again about his son. Without intent of his own, the images were unleashed. He saw his son standing on the ground, surrounded by endless crowds of people. All of them were dirty, somehow despicable. But his son was not. And in the midst of all these people, their banter, their smiles, their voices, their interactions and overall interconnection was almost like an invisible chain of sorts had them bound together. But not his son, no. His son instead was silent, he looked around but could not find anything at which to gaze. Then, he turned his head to the sky, that endless ocean above, and began to levitate upwards. This instilled an instant panic in the father and so he ran instinctively to save his son. But as he ran towards him, and his son continued levitating higher and higher, he realized he would be beyond his grasp to reach. And so as he got to him, he became aware that he was still wearing his shackles. Without a moment of hesitation he ripped from his feet these chains and abruptly aimed them at his son. With a throw of utmost precision he managed to catch him with the shackles, and with their heavy weight was able to return him back to the ground.

And so there they stood, these silly fools, with hopes and dreams of everything the opposite of what they are. But in reality they are all slaves. And their slavery is not the kind that needs shackles to remind. For they will willingly chain themselves, these slaves. Stray too far and instinctively they will beg to be shackled to their fellow man, to their fellow ideals, to their fellow master. What a joke is man.