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My Shadow Story
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By:
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jessealess
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Mood:
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frustrated
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Date:
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Apr 4, 2008, 04:50 AM
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Music:
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None
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The shadow asks the stranger, "Am I a whole person?"
To which the stranger, as he sits and begins sipping a cup of tea, replies, "Who am I to say of you? Instead, I will ask--Are you a whole person?"
"Well, I am here now, and all of the pieces that I am made up of are here now as well, for if even just one of those single pieces were to not be here, then I would not be here as I am now." Answers the shadow.
The stranger then asks the shadow, "And if I were to take away one of those single pieces, even the most unneccesary one, would you be a whole person then as well as now?"
"If I am a whole person now, then by taking away from me just one of those pieces that I am made up of now, I would no longer be a whole person then. However, if I am a whole person now, the removal of one piece would make me not a whole person now, but I would be there then, made up of all the pieces that I will then be made up of, so in truth, I will then be a whole person just as I am now a whole person, made up of all the pieces that I am made up of now." Was the shadow’s response.
The stranger asks again, "And if then, I were take away another single piece, Would you be a whole person then?"
"Would it be accurate to presume that, if this were to keep occurring, that each piece that is taken away would leave me, each time, as not a whole person then as I am now, and yet fully able to say then that I am a whole person now?" How, if before a piece is taken away now, I can still be a whole person then; when, I was a whole person then, am no longer a whole person now, after a piece has been taken away?" Replied the shadow.
To all this, the stranger then replies, "So, if you consider yourself a whole person before the piece is taken away, then you cease to be a whole person after it is taken, and if you consider yourself as a whole person, being the sum of all the pieces you are made up of at any moment, then even after a piece is taken away, you shall always be a whole person, no matter how much is taken away from you?"
The shadow replies, "I will be a whole person then, no matter how much has been taken away, but to the whole person now, I will no longer be that whole person again. But, to the whole person then, I would be just as whole as the person before it, yet less so than the person after it."
Finally, the stranger asks the shadow, "What if there are no more pieces to take? What are you then?"
The shadow responds, "If there is not even one single piece left that can be taken away from me, then I am made up of nothing, and I am not only not a whole person, but I do not exist. If I were to have a single remaining piece left of me, and if I am a whole person now, just as I am, having been removed of that final piece, a whole person then, even if I do not exist, would I still be a whole person then as I am a whole person now?" The shadow pauses quietly for a moment, "But this does not make any sense."
The stranger, finishing up the cup of tea, stands and begins to walk away. Turning back slightly over his shoulder, he says, "As you have allowed yourself an abundunce of yourself, you have managed to make youself to no longer exist and still claim yourself a whole person. This is why you are yet to be whole, and why you remain merely my shadow."
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