the second cave

This is a variation on Plato’s famous allegory of the cave, but it’s not necessary to have read that first. If interested, see http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/allegory.html.

Behold! Some human beings lived in a cave, which had a mouth open towards the light. Here, they had been since birth, always staring at the back wall. See, the light entered the cave in such a way that it passed over their heads, so when people outside the cave would shuffle by carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues, and figures of animals, the cave people would see these shadows projected onto the wall. And given the echoes around the cave, when one of the passers-by spoke, they’d presume that the voice which they heard had come from the passing shadow.

They quite liked the daily show of shadows—devoted themselves, even. It distracted them from the boredom and drudgery of living in a darkened cave. For fear that all else was darkness, they made a pact that each one would look neither to the right nor to the left but only stare straight ahead at the shadows. When someone would get curious and start to turn their head around to see what was behind, they would use rocks to bludgeon that person to death, all the while careful not to look back themselves. No one wants to believe that everything around them is darkness.

Besides,they were sure that the shadows were all there was to see.

Shadows cannot reach out and grab one. There is nothing fearsome or imposing about them. They can only distract and entertain. So while there was not much to get excited about in the cave, there was little to get upset about either. Things were just nice enough. And the cave people were nice enough too. Why should it be otherwise? Like the shadows they worshipped, the cave people were careful not to intrude on one another’s space; no one was ever guilty of an offense, though offenses occasionally just “happened” as if by their own accord; and if something negative needed to be said, it was never without a positive preamble.

Very nice, indeed.

Now, there was still another cave, the entrance of which was just to the left of the first. And unlike the cave on the right, this one had no shadows. The narrow, winding entrance allowed no light to enter.

The people of this cave, the left cavers, had nothing to look at, they just groped around in darkness all day long. In all the sheer misery of living in a pitch-dark cave, the left cavers were never shy about voicing how they felt. On occasion, when one would cry out in agony, the others would allow it having often done the same, themselves.  

One day while stumbling about aimlessly one of the left cavers felt a small crawl space in the wall. It was the passage to the outside. As he started to crawl through the space, he began to experience a sharp pain at front of his face unlike anything he’d ever felt. It was the glare of light on his eyes, and as he continued to crawl, the pain became more intense until even the red glow beyond his eyelids was painful. But he also felt elated somehow, like a sort of warm air had been breathed into his cave-hardened chest. Excitedly, he backed out of the passage to alert the others to his discovery.

The light outside was far too bright for their unaccustomed senses. But shielding their eyes and focusing on the blurry ground, they were thrilled even to feel its balmy heat on their skin. This, even though they could not make out what sort of strange new place this was. 

Everything else is joy to people born in darkness. 

Little by little, as their eyes began to distinguish their surroundings, they noticed that there was another cave, the one to the right. Joyously, they rushed in to free anyone within and share with them what they’d found. Finding the right cavers staring at shadows, the left cavers began to shout and sing and dance about in the entrance to get their attention. But naturally, the right cavers thought that this was just a lively new show that they had never seen before. Of course, they knew, the shadows were all that was there.

As I wrote this, I had in my head the difference between loving God and loving religion. But you are welcome to hear in it something else, if you like.