The Thinking Man

A Story by Mahan

In a thinking man's life, there always comes a point in time where he loses himself in the hectic haze of daily routines, where the universal truth he had been seeking all along becomes to him but an imperceptible concept, impossible to grasp and hidden behind a veil of half truths and tired rituals. Before, the man used to stop and ask himself, "why am I here? What is my purpose? Is there even a reason behind my existence?" But now, he is being crushed beneath the responsibilities bestowed upon him, and the man does not have enough time to ponder; the trivialities of day to day life begin to infect his mind and seep into his every thought, and the thinking man's path diverges from the road that once led to a universal truth. Thus, this truth remains undiscovered, and the desire to seek it gets buried beneath the soil of denial in the garden of the man's heart.

The question then remains: what is this universal truth that the thinking man seeks? I have neither the time nor the wisdom to answer this question. I do, however, know of many half truths: when lovers stare deep into each other's eyes, they both catch a glimpse of the universal truth that exists deep within their waned hearts; when a mother caresses her child, the child feels the touch of universal truth, transmitting eternal warmth through their fragile body; when the thinking man stands upon a bridge and gazes at the sun setting behind the distant horizon, a sense of euphoria begins to engulf his weary soul, and at that moment, he too begins to see a fragment of the universal truth.

I realize, then, that my reality consists only of these fleeting moments of compassion, these half truths that I once deemed as frivolous normalities. There may never be a universal truth, no essence of existence, no real reason that justifies life -I shall never know. Thus, I will embrace my ignorance and look into my lover's eyes, for her gaze is the window that allows me to stare deep into my own soul where the universal truth lies. That, in and of itself, is enough to fulfill my heart.
This is the conclusion that the thinking man himself must come to, that he needs to think less and feel more.