Glory Is Transitory

The glory of the world is transitory and it is not that which gives us the dimension of our life – but the choice we make of pursuing our personal myth, of believing in our Utopias, and fighting for them. We are all protagonists of our existences and very often it is the anonymous heroes that leave the most lasting marks.

A Japanese legend says that a certain monk, filled with enthusiasm by the Chinese book Tao Te King, decided to raise funds to translate and publish those verses into his mother tongue. He took ten years to collect enough.

In the meantime, a plague afflicted his country and the monk decided to use the money to relieve the suffering of the sick. As soon as the situation returned to normal, again he began to raise the money needed for publishing the Tao; more than ten years went by and when he was ready to print the book, a seaquake left hundreds of people homeless.

The monk again spent the money on rebuilding houses for those that had lost everything. A further ten years went by, he began to raise money and, finally, the Japanese people were able to read the Tao Te King.

Wise men say that, in fact, the monk made three editions of the Tao: two invisible and one printed. He believed in his Utopia, fought the good fight, remained true to his objective, but did not stop paying attention to his similar.

I hope it will be like that with all of us: sometimes invisible books, emerging from generosity shown to one’s fellow human, are as important as those that fill our libraries.

So till my next post ya, its bye from Ganz.

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