The Words of a Wise Man | Teen Ink

The Words of a Wise Man

September 28, 2012
By literaturelover GOLD, Albuquerque, New Mexico
literaturelover GOLD, Albuquerque, New Mexico
15 articles 0 photos 2 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Do not fear death, fear an un-lived life."


There once was a highly respected man from a small village. This man walked around with a humble demeanor, giving out advice to those who requested it. His advice, if followed, always proved to work. Because of this, and the man's self-effacing attitude, others began following him, absorbing his sagacious words and writing them down. Even after the wise man's death, devout disciples repeated his words of wisdom to those who were willing to listen. They traveled to other towns, scattering across the state, then the country. Soon, the whole world knew of the wise man's words. Everyone accepted the words to be true without a question in their minds. After all, there were more important things to think about. Gradually, the words of the wise man were translated for others to understand. Along the way, phrases got misinterpreted, but no one had the time to fix it. After all, the main ideas were still present. As the translations began to change, preachers started to preach the wrong messages too literally. Nobody noticed, and for generations people listened to the slightly inaccurate words of the wise man. Then, one day, a young child came along. He grew up listening to the messages of the preachers who claimed to understand every word the wise man had once said. Like everyone else, he accepted these teachings to be true. As he grew older and more educated, though, he began to see faults in the literal re-teachings of the wise man. While the boy, who was now a young adult, struggled to understand the words of the wise man by himself, everyone else ignored his accusations of flaws in their teachings. After all, that was the way it had been taught for years before.


The author's comments:
The transition from high school was very difficult for me spiritually. I joined a lunch group for religion and for a while I felt like I had a very strong faith. After the group started to get too extreme, I started to struggle with my spirituality. It caused me to question everything I had grown up with and it really shook me.

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