He holds up his hand, and a ruby appears floating before him, spinning
slowly in the air. It is as large as his fist, and worth a fortune
to most people. As he looks into its shimmering facets, however,
he feels it has no value. He can create hundreds more with a wave
of his hand, but what would he buy with them? What thing could he
buy that he could not simply create on
his own? Nothing. And so the ruby is worthless to him,
as are most of the treasures that fill his castle.
On the roof beside him rests his light silver crown. He looks on it with disdain. He is a king of a great kingdom, but it brings him no joy. Men have fought bloody wars to attain the title he bears, but he would gladly hand it to the first person who asked it of him. This authority was as worthless to him as the ruby.
He leaps off of the tower, his magic letting him float gently to the
gardens below, and stands on the rim a large fountain, looking at his reflection
in the water. “Everything a man could want is mine at a whim...but
I have no reason to want anything.”
He waves his hand over the water, and his reflection changes.
Instead of the polished armor and silk tabard that are his normal garb,
he sees himself in a t-shirt and blue jeans....
Bryan is a typical young college freshman. He isn’t rich, but he has never really lacked for anything. He is kept busy with school work and what little social life he sees fit to maintain. But he has no ambition. He has no goal to strive for, no objective to achieve. He is a man decidedly without a mission.
Bryan has seen all the things the world deems important and feels no
desire to achieve any of them. He sees that money corrupts because
of what can be done with it, but also that poverty corrupts because of
the jealousy it creates. He sees power and impotence in the same
light. With nothing to reach for and everything to lose, he just
goes about his days trying to
maintain the status quo. In the grand scheme of things, he does
not seem to be very important, and he is perfectly content with that.
As he sits down at his desk at home, he looks into the small mirror on
the wall and sees
himself in armor and a tabard....
“Hello, old friend,” says Bryan to his reflection, “And what wonders
are you up to
today?”
“None at all,” replies Dreamer, “And you?”
“Same old same old.”
Dreamer chuckles, “Why are we putting ourselves through this, Bryan?
I, with all my power, cannot see a reason for my existence. I can
give birth to galaxies and crush them with a wish, but I am powerless to
find even one reason to go on. I am everything you once wanted to
be: rich, powerful, limitless. Now that you have seen that life,
though, you realize it isn’t what
you’re looking for at all. It offers you nothing that you don’t
already have. Great power is nothing without a driving purpose to
use it for.
And you...there you sit, practically non-existent as far as the rest
of your world is concerned, and you too have no purpose that you are aware
of. You have everything I desire: a peaceful life, reletively minor
worries, and the simple challenges that come with a normal life.
But still that key element is missing. Even in your simple life,
there is no real reason to live. So,
why? Why do we bother?”
Bryan sits back and thinks for a long time. “Because, somewhere deep in our souls, our hearts are telling us that we do have a purpose. There is a reason for us to be what we are, wheather great or small. But we have to continue until we find out what that purpose is.” Bryan looks his friend in the eye. “You know the rules of the game as well as I. Quitting isn’t an option here.”
“True. Oh, but it’s tempting, Bryan. Trust me. When you’ve out-lived some star-systems you come to realize that a lot of the things you once would have died for aren’t even worth the effort it takes to name them. So what do we do with these lives of ours in the mean time?”
“Continue to live them, until we find a reason to live them, then we finish living them. Someday, Dreamer, we’ll look around ourselves and realize our lives are actually worth something. And you can be certain that is just the moment our lives will be snatched from us.”
Dreamer nods. “A man who finds a purpose can achieve that purpose. Then, having obtained all he could want in life, he truly has nothing to live for.” Dreamer chuckles quietly. “Can’t say I’d mind dying like that. The death of a legend is often far more tragic.”
And the two just look at each other for a moment. They are on opposite ends of the spectrum, one a conqueror of nations and creature of untold power, the other a mere man with little influence on the world around him. Yet both seek the same thing: a reason to live. All men, great and small alike, must have a reason to continue, and these two, the most powerful of the powerful, and the least important of the unimportant, are no exception.
“Farewell, my friend,” says Dreamer, “Until we find our reasons.” With a wave of his hand, the reflections are restored to normal.