An Ancient Parable
It is common knowledge that prehistoric people led a nomadic life, much like wild animals. They would come to a beautiful area, quickly put up makeshift houses, “graze”, kill nearby game, trample down the grass, cut down the trees, pollute the springs, and then leave in search of another place to rest. As the millennia passed, the numbers of nomads dwindled: one tribe after another would find a plot of land to their liking, fix it up, build a high- towered stone wall around it, and stay there forever. The more time passed, the greater the accumulation behind those walls of the “materialized labor” (as the ancients used to say) of many generations, and the more the former nomads valued and adorned their dwellings. Neither bloody wars with neighbors nor raids by steppe warriors or terrible medieval plagues could force “those who sat behind the walls” to abandon their land and start all over. There was a tribe, however, that contrary to the general trend (an ancient term) was unable to settle down permanently. While its neighbors had already put down roots, like oak trees, in their own land, customs, and language, these people were still wandering across borders from one part of the world to another. Foreigners who happened to visit these people could never understand the cause of their failures, for these were strong, intelligent people proficient in sciences, crafts, and arts. Whenever one of them found himself, accidentally or forcibly, in a foreign country, he would soon climb up to the very highest rungs of the administrative or scholarly ladder. If he had, say, a twin brother at home, the latter would live his whole life “at zero-subsistence level,” undernourished and in worn-out shoes. Experienced travelers considered this a “great anomaly:” they can work for other people but are unable to improve the life of their own country. Perhaps it was some kind of jinx,” the learned people wondered.
This went on for more than a century. One day a little angel caught sight of the people who are the subject of our sorrowful discussion. Since he had nothing in particular to do at that moment, he looked down at the Earth with interest. When he realized how those people were living, he felt pain, for this was at great odds with Divine Purpose and Providence. So the angel decided to help those earthlings. He reflected for a long time, consulted with other celestial beings, even carried out a small experiment. He then descended to Earth on a pitch-black night and planted the famous Tree of Life in the center of that country. The golden-red leaves of that tree shone so brightly that it could be seen even in the remotest galaxies.
(Note from the author: Our forefathers were very familiar with the Tree of Life, or Universe Tree. Although contemporary people have lost a lot of that important, ancient lore, certain things have survived. We know that the Tree of Life embraces time, space, humans, life, and death. It also distinguishes between and chooses “day or night,” “summer or winter,” “a straight or curved line,” “top or bottom,” “force or law,” “life or death,” “truth or lies,” i.e., all those things on which the entire essence of the world depends. This choice can also be influenced by certain wise humans whom the sap of the Tree empowers to change the face of the world. The Tree was once so tall that whenever a human climbed it, s/he could cross from one world to another and then come back. Today’s people no longer know how to do this.
The top of the Tree is inhabited by joyful birds and wise honeybees, and its branches are hung with celestial bodies. The Tree of Life usually grows “on a hill or in an open field by the roadside or in a landlord’s courtyard.” In our day the Tree may put down roots even in asphalt, especially if it has been planted by an angel and is watered by young people).
American astronauts claim they saw the Tree from outer space, but for some reason failed to identify its coordinates. This sparked a popular belief: the land where the Tree grows will experience either booming prosperity or shame. Everything depends on people. For although the Tree is eternal and always green, a human must possess many things to be able to take advantage of its benefits: knowledge, faith, gallantry, steadfastness, and, last but not least, the ability and desire to look after the Tree. So after planting the Tree right in the asphalt of a large city square in the middle of Earth, the angel began anxiously observing the earthlings, wondering if they would have enough savvy to seize this opportunity, perhaps the last one.
And what about the people on whose land the fateful Tree of Life and the Universe suddenly sprang forth? It turns out that they were all sitting, standing, and even lying around the flaming gold Tree, dancing and singing in a circle, and making speeches. They couldn’t take their eyes off the Tree so they wouldn’t miss the miracle, the moment when their country would revive.
As time went by, the ground around the Tree dried up; the golden leaves wilted and began falling little by little. Every night dark figures would creep to the Tree, hack the trunk with axes, and vanish into thin air, after stuffing their bags with golden leaves. Meanwhile, in the daytime you could see many important people on the street, wearing golden-leaved insignia of honor on their chests. Impatient people plucked the still green and bitter Apples of Life that had just budded on the Tree’s branches, ripped off the bark as a souvenir, and again covered the ground around the trunk with asphalt to make it easier to dance in a circle. Soon the tree, once known as the Tree of Life, was indistinguishable from the old, yellowed Christmas tree covered in dirty paper strips, which the civic fathers had forgotten to dismantle and take to the dump.
High up in the sky, a little angel sat crying on the edge of a tiny pink cloud, his feet hanging down. Teardrops fell on the disfigured Tree of Life, on the heads of those people, on the remnants of the golden foliage. The angel ardently prayed that what he saw down below was just a dream. Or was it?
