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The Truth |
A young man lived in peace in a serene village where he attended to his fields and saw only blessings in his life. But he could not help the feeling that there was something lacking. Why am I here, he pondered and wondered what life was all about. The urge burned within his bones and so one day he left his family and friends behind and began a quest for the truth.
He lived on the road, traveling to the far corners of the world, but without much success in his endeavors. Finally one day he encountered an old sage who knew where 'The Truth' could be found. The youth was warned that the journey would be long and dangerous, The Truth might devour him, and perhaps there would be no way back. But the young man had a heart of a lion and he did not hesitate at all. And so it wasn't too long before he stood in front of her.
In a remote and uncharted mountainous region, The Truth resided undisturbed in utter solitude in a deep dark cave. She was old, The Truth, she was older than antiquity itself - she was probably from the times before the big deluge. Her face was ingrained with wrinkles from eons of merciless frozen gusts; she had stood in a million snowstorms, and her skin was rough and coarse. She was withered by millennia of scorching high-altitude sun and covered with green-blue fungus from dwelling in the dark damp cave. She reeked like death itself and her eyes were just two sunken wells in her shrunken face. Truth is, The Truth was not a pleasant sight, to say the least.
She accepted the young man as her initiate and for three years he sat by her day and night and was taught all about the truth directly from The Truth's toothless mouth.
After three years he felt it was time for him to leave. He missed his family and the simple healthy life that he had led. And so the young man asked permission to return to his village and tell the truth to everybody he chanced upon along his way. The Truth agreed, yet she asked him to promise her one thing.
'Anything you want', the young man pledged.
'Well', said The Truth, 'when they ask about me, don't you tell them I am old and ugly, tell them I am still young and gorgeous'.
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