[nukkad] The Mirror

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Every man is the son of his own works. -Miguel de Cervantes, 
novelist (1547-1616)
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The Mirror - 
Author Robert Fulghum tells this story of one of his
professors, a wise man whose name was Alexander
Papaderos: 

At the last session on the last morning of a two-week
seminar on Greek culture, Dr. Papaderos turned and
made the ritual gesture: "Are there any questions?" 

Quiet quilted the room. These two weeks had generated
enough questions for a lifetime, but for now, there
was only silence. "No questions?" Papaderos swept the
room with his eyes. 

So, I asked. "Dr. Papaderos, what is the meaning of
life?" 

The usual laughter followed, and people stirred to go.
Papaderos held up his hand and stilled the room and
looked at me for a long time, asking with his eyes if
I was serious and seeing from my eyes that I was. 

"I will answer your question." Taking his wallet out
of his hip pocket, he fished into a leather billfold
and brought out a very small round mirror, about the
size of a quarter. And what he said went something
like this: 

"When I was a small child, during the war, we were
very poor and we lived in a remote village. One day,
on the road, I found the broken pieces of a mirror. A
German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place. "I
tried to find all the pieces and put them together,
but it was not possible, so I kept only the largest
piece. This one. And by scratching it on a stone, I
made it round. I began to play with it as a toy and
became fascinated by the fact that I could reflect
light into dark places where the sun would never
shine--in deep holes and crevices and dark closets. It
became a game for me to get light into the most
inaccessible places I could find.

"I kept the little mirror, and as I went about my
growing up, I would take it out in idle moments and
continue the challenge of the game. As I became a man,
I grew to understand that this was not just a child's
game but a metaphor for what I might do with my life.
I came to understand that I am not the light or the
source of light. But light--truth, understanding,
knowledge--is there, and it will only shine in many
dark places if I reflect it. "I am a fragment of a
mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know.
Nevertheless, with what I have I can reflect light
into the dark places of this world--into the black
places in the hearts of men--and change some things in
some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. 

This is what I am about. This is the meaning of life."

And then he took his small mirror and, holding it
carefully, caught the bright rays of daylight
streaming through the window and reflected them onto
my face and onto my hands folded on the desk. 




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