– But then, what remains for man to do?
- What are you talking about?
– If you don't live to work, if you stop chasing the carrot of wealth, if you understand that achievements only hide your anguish, if you recognize that religion is someone else's response, if you admit that social prestige and recognition from others they are aspirin for the pain of his soul and for his loneliness… so, what is the meaning of life?
- AHA! You have reached a very important point, crucial for someone who wants to stop being a slave: Without all the predigested answers that we have been given since childhood, without everything that we “should” do… What is the meaning of life? ?
- Which?
– Wait, you're getting ahead of yourself. Before that question there is another more important one:
If you remove everything that they told you that you are and you realize that you are not your nationality, your religion, your beliefs, your customs. If there is no way you "should" behave and if there is no one to follow...
– So – I interrupted him – Who am I!? Where I go? What do I do here?
– Until these questions do not arise in your heart and, as long as you accept without further ado the explanations they gave you, you are nothing more than a stick figure, a puppet, a gear, a chess piece, a thing, a slave…
- Already! It's enough!
Those questions had already arisen in me when I was a teenager, I rebelled for a while and then I got into the little game again.
– All healthy young people have to rebel. Through them life says: "This is wrong, you are all wrong, this society is shit." It is a pity that, by rebelling, they fall into the traps that society itself has set for them to bring them back to the treadmill.
– What traps?
– Alcohol and drugs. Their yearning for rebellion is also taken advantage of by advertisers who sell them the stereotype of the rebel. And his anger against society is used against him. They want to be different by being the same as everyone else who wants to be different.
– And once stupefied with alcohol, cigarettes, studs, fashion, it's easy to tie them back to the mill.
– If only they knew that rebelling really means not playing along with society. Stop giving money to the owners of Marlboros, stop consuming Bacardi, stop copying Americans with fashions that don't even fit them. Stop hurting themselves and gain respect for themselves. That would be a rebellion! That would make them different!
– Well, then, what is the meaning of life?
– Life, my king, has no meaning in itself. You have the opportunity and the great responsibility to give it the meaning that you decide.
– What if I decide to be a drunk, a bum or a pimp?
– It's perfect, it doesn't matter in the least because you'll be here just for a moment anyway.
Your life is only important to yourself, to no one else. The interesting thing is that you decide, that your life is not a chain of reactions but a chain of actions. May you be the one who decides your path, not the owner of the model brewery, not a damn drug dealer, not a priest who knows nothing about life because he lives hiding in his religion, or a miserable publicist who makes others rich by making you feel bad about yourself. You understand?
– I understand perfectly. Stop being manipulated.
- That's how it is. Also, I will tell you that there are some paths that lead to illness, to greed, to indifference. There are actions that will inevitably lead you to suffering, to mistreatment of your loved ones, to losing respect for yourself.
This is not a matter of good or bad, nor am I trying to tell you what to do, it is a matter of logic.
– But there are many other paths.
- Much others! If people would stop going around in the Ferris wheel, if they would stick their heads a little above the anthill in which they live; they could see a lot of paths that lead to true…joy, to enormous enjoyment, to more harmonious relationships, to love, to ecstasy.
- Like what? – I asked intrigued.
– I'm not going to tell you, you would have to find out for yourself.
– Damn.
– You were asking what a man has left to do without all the carrots that are put in front of him? How about finding out who he is? How about getting your freedom back? How about searching for the truth? Learn to love? Take responsibility for your own life?
– To begin with, but… there must be something to help you in your search.
– There are a lot of paths that take you there. Paths that are five thousand years old or more paths that thousands of seekers have followed and continue to follow.
– And are you going to tell me?
– Gladly… At the time.
- What?! Yet another carrot?
– Yes, but… a spiritual carrot! LOL…