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Imagine, if you will, staring down at a world. The world is dry and parched, cracked from the lack of sustenance. The brown, dry dirt is relieved only by pools of brackish water that seeps up through the sediment, full of refuse and urine, these pools are central to the villages built up around them. Surrounding this destroyed land is an impossibly deep chasm, a tear in the very fabric of the earth, wider than the hundreds of villages put together. The depth of the wound can not be measured either. The only sign that there is a bottom are the occasional tongues of flames that flick out and show what we have already seen - people leaping, jumping or being pushed off the edge of the tear, then falling, falling, falling until the flames lick up and consume them, but the people do not die! their screams continue on! looking harder you see masses of people standing in those flames screaming, but they are all looking at the other side of the chasm, the other side of the rent.
On the other side is a land, full of flowers, full of shade trees. The grass looks soft and tender, the shades of colors everything from dark green to wild purple bring an eye pleasing look to the world. The people there are happy, each tending their own job, each helping each other out. In the center of this verdant side which completely surrounds the chasm, there is a fountain, a pool, a gleeful source of water. It shoots high and strong out of the firmament, it fills rivers, lakes, aquaducts, anything that could contain it is filled and overflows.
Picture, if you will, you are standing in the dry dust of the one land. The parched ground seems to suck at your feet. Your shadow wavers and shimmers in the heat. A man came and gave you water to drink and you felt refreshed, strengthened. You search for this man now. You pass through villages. They laugh at your silliness for seeking and following a man who must be dead already if he gives away his water. No, they are quite content where they are and they recommend that you settle down and find the real answer to life. Their filth is accepted as finery, the dust becomes a badge of honor. They drink from their filthy pool of water and say that it is enough. You continue your search.
You see people trying to build bridges to the other side, but at some point, each and every bridge collapses and falls into the depths, carrying all those working on it. The masses of people pushing against you eventually take you to the brink, the edge of the scarring wound in the earth. A man runs past you and leaps screaming "To become one with everything!" and he falls, falls, falls and then is touched by one of those leaping bits of flame. His screams of ecstasy change to screams of pain and horror and....understanding.
A man walks off, saying that we must all accept fate, another says as he is going over that he must atone for his sins. Some believe that the chasm is a trick of the eye, some believe that you travel the chasm and return to the land to try again until you are changed enough to be at peace.
As you watch this macabre scene, a man behind you says "I'll help you over"
"Over the chasm? But there is no bridge?" And you turn to the one who spoke. Your breath catches, this was the man who gave you the pure water! He smiles
"I shall be your bridge"
"Yes! please!" you answer.
The man stretches and impossibly you see him grab hold of the other side, his feet dug into the dirt. "Hurry!" he calls. You weep as you start treading across his body, the tread of your shoes ripping holes in his clothes, the stones and burrs stuck on your shoes, gouging, tearing his flesh. The scars on his body remind you of the scars in the land you are leaving. Plentiful and abounding, you wonder how anyone could go through all this man has.
At the end you just left, people start jeering and pestering you and the man. They start kicking his feet, they start throwing stones at you, but most seem to be at him. "We don't want your kind" "Fools!" "Go ahead and try to escape, the chasm gets everyone!" they cry. Your balance falters, but the man shifts his weight and you regain your balance, you keep inching slowly across the man's back while the stones and jeers continue to follow your back. Soon you realize that you are hearing calls from the other side. You look up, and see people, hands outstretched to you, waiting for you. "hurry!" "You can do it!" "Soon! Very soon" they are calling. You make the other side, and you tear up at the sight of this land of plenty. You turn back to help the man who helped you across, but he is already getting up, on the other side. "But sir! Stay here!" you call.
"In time I shall, but there are many more that need a bridge" you hear him shout back.
Imagine, if you will, what will you do when this man came to you?
This man is looking for you.
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