The Young Man And The Sage

Long ago in a land of the ancients there was a young man walking. Walking through a place dark with poverty, famine, disease, and evil. The young man was poor and destitute. He was gaunt and frail from malnutrition. His skin was ashen gray from disease. His clothes were torn and tattered from wear and his feet were bare. The sores on them proof of the miles walked with no shoes on roads of rock and gravel. As he walked slowly down the beaten path that once was well traveled but had obviously been neglected in recent times, he saw someone sitting by the wayside off in the distance. The path converged with a much larger thoroughfare and on a large log lying at the crossroads sat a man. He was old, or so it seemed. His hair, though thin on top, was long and white, as was the beard on his face. His clothes too were ragged and old and though he had no shoes, his feet were bound with rags to pad and protect them from injury on the roads and pathways on which he walked. He held in his right hand a long walking stick on which to balance himself to make his walk more stable. As the young man approached the stranger he greeted him.

Young Man - Hello old man. And where would you be traveling today?

Sage - I am traveling no place in particular. I have no where else to go. For I am old. I have outlived all who knew me or would wish to have me come to them. I wander from place to place.

Young Man - What is your name? And where are you from? I have always lived in this part of the country and I do not remember seeing you before.

Sage - I no longer have a name. I once was called a name given to me by my mother and father. They are long dead and gone and so is my name. I am called "Sage" for I am old. Even ancient to many.

Young Man - What brings you here?

Sage - The story of my presence here is long and dreadful, dreary and sad. You surely do not want to hear it. You must have more important things to do than hear the ramblings of an old man closer to death than life.

Young Man - I truly have no place to go or to be. I am a wanderer like yourself. All who have known me are dead and gone as well.

Sage - Well then, if you insist and have no place to be for a while, sit and I will tell you my tale.

It began long ago in a land that was beautiful and lush with green valleys and flowing streams. Livestock were raised in those valleys and drank from those streams. Families, mothers, fathers, and children, both sister and brother lived together and loved one another. Cities and towns were scattered all across the land and people worked hard to provide food and clothes for their young. Even the old we're cared for after the years of their youth had gone and they could not take care of themselves. The birth of a new child was celebrated and life was good for most. Not for all, but for most it was good. For many, there was even prosperity. There were those who were poor but they were protected and cared for by those who prospered and worshipped God.

Young Man - God? What is this...God, you speak of?

Sage - God. I know. You have never heard of Him. He created everything. All of the earth, sky, sea, and every living creature. He has always been. There was a time when everyone in the land in which I lived worshipped Him. He blessed them and they prospered. But there came a time when man loved himself more than God. It first began with a few rebellious people who would not believe in God and taught their children that He was a myth. Then slowly but surely the majority was beguiled into believing that it was offensive and wrong to teach any of the children about God for fear of offending those few who did not believe in Him. After a time the cancer of disbelief took hold in every other facet of life. Their were those who gained their livelihood from the entertainment of the masses in plays and acting out of fictitious roles that made them famous. For some reason, their fame began to be seen as intelligence. The masses were beguiled again into believing that these people, because of their fame, were wise when they were not. Quite the contrary. They were not wise. They were ignorant, immoral, ungodly fools. But the real fools, time would tell were the masses themselves. For they would put in place over themselves governors, and in authority over themselves, political leaders who were also either ungodly themselves or believers who, though they claimed to know God, were cowards. They would not trust and faithfully serve Him but served the whims and wishes of the ungodly who kept them in office. After years of slowly turning their backs on God and what He commanded, the nation was overturned by unbelievers and God haters. Eventually schools banned teachings of God. After a time even the churches, places where the words of God were reverently preached and held in great honor, became travesties of heresy, preaching the ways of the godless and the disbelief of what had now become the masses. After years of false teaching by many, the small few who still preached the Word of God were killed or put in prison. Women killed their own children at will when they chose not to have them. The sick, infirm, mentally and physically disabled were seen as a burden on society and they too were killed. The old were left to starve or die of sickness, denied even the simplest of medical attention or food for their starving bellies. Everyone did as he saw fit in his own eyes. No one obeyed even the laws of the land. Chaos reigned. Even anarchy, until the presence of The Lord God departed completely from the land. Famine, pestilence, disease, crime, and mayhem prevailed where once was love and kindness. All was lost.

Young Man - That is a terrible tale. How did you survive such a place to be so old and how did you come to be here? Where is this place? What is it called?

Sage - I survived but only barely as it seems, for I am here before you now. I was imprisoned and for the last seventy years that is where I have been until this very day. I am here for, as I said, I have no place else to go. I am but the last remnant of the past. The place I speak of is the place where you and I stand at this moment. I do not know what it is called now. It was once a great place but because of its rebellion against God it has come to desolation. It was called in the ancient times, "The land of the free and the home of the brave." It was The United States of America.