The Pupil
ave you ever considered," the Teacher said, "that all our emotions are held in a pool
within our souls? Like a reservoir or a vault, ready to be released, called upon, whenever we are so
drained emotionally we need a boost."
"Like an electric charge?" asked the Pupil, the tone of his voice implying that he sought a deeper, more spiritual, meaning.
"You have always considered emotion a weakness," continued the Teacher, "a failing. Something to be borne, like a woman gives birth to a child, messy, painful and best forgotten as quickly as possible."
"I see no value in it," responded the Pupil, "it achieves nothing but to muddy the waters and confuse the senses. How can you make a reasoned, rational decision if your mind and being are clouded by emotion? It is nothing more than a confusion. Useless, like a dog grown too old to work. Like dead wood it should be cut out ruthlessly to enable the plant to grow strong and healthy."
The Teacher pauses and carefully considers the next words to be spoken, "But emotions guide us too. If we do not allow emotion to assist our judgement, then our judgement becomes without compassion, without humanity. Ours would be an empty world without such irrational constraints."
"There, you've said it all. How can irrationality do anything except cause confusion. Surely emotion is the most divisive element in this time. If we ran the world purely on rational thought and logic it would be a simple matter. No hunger, no pain. Its logical, if someone is hungry feed them, if someone hurts find a cure."
"But what if there is no food, no cure? I agree that logic says solve the problem simply, but what if the solution is not simple or straightforward." The Teacher turns to the Pupil and invites a response, but the Pupil is silent. His face is a question mark. It is obvious that he has difficulty understanding the concept espoused by the Teacher.
Finally, he looks at the Teacher, "I do not understand what you mean. How can there be no food, no cure? These are things I can not understand. Food is everywhere you look. We have an abundance here, growing in the ground, above the ground, on trees and bushes, in the water and the air. You teach us that every problem has a solution. I do not understand, please explain to me."
The Teacher removes an apple from the tree. "Look at this apple. It is food. You are hungry, you eat. What if there were two people and only one apple. Who should eat the apple?" The Pupil smiles and replies, "The first person who takes it from the tree."
"I know it is difficult for you to imagine," continues the Teacher, "but, for the sake of this example, let us suppose that these two people are very different. The tall one can reach the apple and pick it, but he is old, his life is nearly over. The small person, who can not reach the tree, is young, his life ahead of him. Now who gets the apple."
"Why, the old man should give the apple to the young man. It is quite obvious and logical. I am surprised you even have - to ask me." says the Pupil. Seeing that the Teacher does not consider his answer complete he continues, "The old man has had his life, he is old and therefore of no value to the community. He can not work, he contributes nothing to the community and is therefore entitled to nothing in return. The young one will contribute greatly, he will work, father children to help the community grow, he may even become Leader. The sustaining of his life is more important."
"A well reasoned, logical, emotionless response," says the Teacher, "but what of the value to the community of the old man in the past. After all, he was young once, he fathered children and worked hard for the community, isn't he entitled to expect something from the community in return?"
"He's already had his dues from the community," the Pupil's tone is becoming angry, "he's had a roof over his head, he has shared the community's food and protection. Why should he expect more. After all, when he was contributing to the community the community contributed to him. It�s only reasonable now that he no longer contributes that the community should be free of him. He has become a burden to them. Eating food which would be better given to the younger members, removing people from the fields and the workplace to look after him and tend to his needs now he is too old to look after them himself. He has become a baby, totally dependent on others. And before you say anything a baby is of value to the community for what it will become, the old man has no value for what he was."
The Teacher considers this last, he considers carefully what he is going to say next, for he realises the true value of the lesson he is trying to impart to his pupil. Finally, he eases his position on the log, looks into the blue sky and raises an arm to sweep across the green valley, awash with light and peace. Below their position on the hill both teacher and pupil can see the community, figures ploughing the fields, fishing the river. Floating up on the wind are the voices of children at play, learning to live together. The Pupil's eyes follow his master's arm and he, too, drinks in the heady wine of humanity.
"There is the old man's value," says the Teacher in a quiet voice, "Not the present, or even the future for that does belong to the young, but the past. When a man can no longer work because he is too old or too sick, he can still teach. He can tell the future what he has shown the present. He can provide advice based on experience, he can warn against mistakes which he has made, he knows the best seeds to plant in each field and when to plant to get the best crop. He has fished at all the best spots, caught game in all the best woods. His value to the community is his past in it. If he becomes morose, or wanders through his own fields, or petulant like a child, well he has earned that right. His value has passed from the physical to the ethereal. And he has learned, over long years, to use the emotions you considered so divisive to cope with his life and to enable him to continue on, to teach what he can no longer do, to entertain with stories and songs which make learning easy. His memories should be your school books, his past your history and his dreams and ambitions your future."
The Pupil continues to look across the glen. There is a storm cloud gathering on the far side of the valley, its shadow slowly creeping towards the village. As he watches its progress he realises, for the first time, how close to ignorance knowledge without emotion truly is. And as he watches his future move forward he decides, as the Teacher did many years before him, to keep ignorance and darkness at bay a little longer.
As they leave the hill together the Teacher is already planning the next day's lesson and the Pupil is, finally, considering who should be the next day's teacher. The cloud is disappearing.
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