The Parable of the Clam

There on a beach, at the end of his rope,
a young man stood watching the water cast upon the shores.
He was a simple man just barely not a boy, barely into his manÕs clothes and business suit.
And he cast his eyes deep into the drink of salty water before him.
He asked, "Why was this all there has to be... This end that was fast approaching?"
For he saw it coming as he sat at his office chair and made the status quo...
He saw a bright Angel flash on his screen with canisters of gas and failing technology,
he saw also the technology that remained, fly wildly out of ManÕs grasp into the air
and make wars of its own upon its creator.
And he saw this and asked, "Why?"
The answers came not from the waters but from a clam washed up upon the shores,
its belly exposed to the elements, its shell breached and in it sat a pearl.
He said to this clam, "You are not supposed to make gems in your belly,
that was for oysters, your cousin."
And the spirit of the clam told him that it was not for him to say,
or understand the intricacies of what should be—
It was for him just to wonder at the strangeness of death
and life in all of its complexities,
and his to respond accordingly by being just as unconventional in his life,
so when it ended, when it all ended,
that those who were left sitting on the shore might say,
as his belly was split open, his shell breached, that man was not supposed to be able to produce a gem,
that was for his cousin the Angels,
and those who were left would pluck his diamond heart and understand that things just are...
and it is only within ourselves that we may produce pearls,
and let the world do as it may.
Be Yourself to its fullest children who read this,
be what you will yourself to be in all its fullest potential.
This, if anything, do for me that I may know that I died not in vain,
That I left something of myself, a pearl...
A Diamond even.

Thank You,

Good bye.

©2000DavidCaplan