The last thing the boy remembered about anyone was holding his mother’s hand while their tribe was migrating somewhere. This story is set in the stone-age times when the video that is “human civilization” was still merely buffering. The path was rocky and tricky. The boy had to often run in order to just keep up with everyone and not lose sight of his mother. His eyes were fixed at her gray dress with black and white spots. The ruthless twists and turns around mountainous paths ensured that one wrong step would mean definite disaster. I have learnt in life that disaster is inevitable once you have to look for it at all crossroads of your journey. The boy tasted proper tragedy when what he feared became a reality. A rock slipped from under his foot and he lost grip of his mother’s hand. He went tumbling down a steep slope near a cliff and was soon out of communicable range.
Did no one try to save him? Was he never found afterwards? This is not a story of rescue. It is a story of survival and that’s exactly what he did. He found a cave that was safe from animals, was not too far away from water and had a healthy supply of bushes that provided him with ample amount of edible berries. He probably found a better place to live than where his whole tribe was headed. Years passed and he formed a routine of morning walks, afternoon drinks, evening dinners and deep slumbers when it got dark. Life was as simple as it could be. He knew what he needed to know and got what he knew he needed.
One morning, when he walked out of his cave, he saw something that immediately caught his attention. On a small cliff a few meters away, he saw the gray dress with black and white spots. This dress, however, was worn by a four legged animal which was looking right back at him. An invisible force pulled the boy in the direction of the animal. The animal, now looking scared, growled at him but the boy did not understand this warning. He extended one of his arms towards him with the intention of feeling the gray dress with black and white spots. The moment his arm was within range, the animal pounced on it and bit most of his hand off. The boy, confused and hurt, ran as fast as he could in the other direction until he was sure he had lost the angry animal.
The boy was fundamentally much kinder than most men. While recovering from his injuries, he thought long and hard about what had happened. He deduced that he had cornered the animal towards the edge of the cliff, leading to it attacking him. The animal was just scared and failed to understand that the boy meant it no harm. He decided that he will meet the animal in a setting that is more comfortable for both of them.
The next time he saw it was when he climbed down to a plainer area to drink water. He thought that this was a safe and comfortable enough place to come into contact with it. He did not risk extending his arm out to it the way he had done previously. He did not want to lose his other hand as well. He cautiously inched towards it. The animal started to growl again and started moving towards him. This time the boy’s instincts kicked in and he immediately started running in the other direction. The chase did not last very long as the animal was too fast for him. He barely avoided fatal injuries due to his changed perception after his previous experience. He lost the animal and reached his cave cursing the whole situation.
He was angry at himself for wanting to connect with the animal so badly. He decided that the energy that gray dress emitted, the one that lured him towards it, was something far too dangerous. He will never go near it again. One day, he was resting in his cave during the evening. He started a small fire deep in his cave to guard it from the strong winds outside. To keep the fire going for longer, he decided to get some dry wood from outside the cave. As he stepped out of the entrance, he saw two small dots glowing. They were the gray animal’s eyes. It looked angry, hungry and ready to attack. The boy picked up some dry sticks near his feet and sprinted towards the deep end of the cave. With a leap and a roar, the animal followed him with frighteningly velocity. The boy reached the place where he had his fire lit and desperately grew the fire using the dry sticks he carried in. The fire grew and stopped the animal right in its tracks. The look of anger soon changed to fear as danger turned around and ran out of the cave.
The boy was stunned. Leaving it alone was not enough to be safe from it. After that heartbreaking incident, the boy decided to light a fire near the entrance of the cave every evening and keep it going till dawn. Most of his long illuminating walks of discovery were now shortened by this responsibility of upholding the flames. A huge chunk of time that he used to relax and ponder about life was now replaced by the consistent effort of keeping the fire alive. What’s more, the constant smoke from the fire weakened him and lead to a relatively much earlier demise for him.
The fire represents the mental and emotional walls we build around ourselves to “safeguard” us from the kind of people that have let us down in the past. We realize the necessity of these walls through our experience but also know that they are limiting us. The purpose of this story is to present a paradox that has been part of human nature for as long as anyone can remember. Should the boy light the fire every day or should he have all possible freedoms of expressing himself?
