🫳 Your Loneliness of Knowing

Hey friends,

There are rows of people sitting in the dark, their arms in chains, facing the wall of a cave. Behind them is a fire. They see dancing shapes throw shadows onto the stone. The shadows are all they have ever known; they have names and stories. The shadows are what they call the world.

This is the beginning of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, a story over a thousand years old. For anyone trying to build something they believe in, it is a tale that may carry something for you. What I like about these old stories is that they teach you how to endure hardship, how to be brave, or how to find peace. But this is my adaptation, and it has a twist at the end.

It starts in the depths of a cave, where things are dark and cold.

Within the lines of people, all chained together, mysteriously, a girl gets loose. Her wrists are free, and she wrings her hands along her arms to make sure. She rubs her eyes and starts to look around to see everyone else fixated upon the shadows on the wall. She looks at them; she knows these people, she knows the shadows. But today, something is different; her wrists are free.

At the back of the cave, from a distant corner, sparkles a small white light, a reflection glittering in a puddle.

_“I wonder what that is?”_ she asks herself as she gets to her knees.

Curiously, she follows it. She realises that it is coming from the end of a tunnel that heads upwards. Following it, she scrambles over rocks and climbs over boulders.

Eventually, a bright new smell washes her senses, a freshness, a crispness, a richness, as if she is eating new air.

Eagerly, she runs towards the light as it grows brighter and brighter. Until eventually, she can’t.

The light is so bright that it is agony to look at. Her eyes stream with pain and tears roll down her face. Thoughts rise of the fire that she left and the people she knows. In fear, she walks back into the shadows, but she stops; it doesn’t feel right. In her heart, something else is pushing her upwards. For a while, she walks up and down, never leaving, never returning.

Eventually, her eyes start to adjust. As she begins to see more clearly, she becomes braver and walks to the edge of the cave. For the first time in her life, she’s able to see things as they actually are. Wonder and awe overcome her as she sees depth, colour, and shapes beyond comprehension. Instantly, she thinks of the people from where she came and how limited their world is. She remembers sitting in that same row, watching that same wall, certain that those shadows were the whole world.

_“I must tell the others about this incredible place. Wow, just look at it! It’s miraculous!”_ she says to herself.

Excitedly, she starts to clamber back down into the depths, descending over rocks and stones. But her eyesight is now different, and she can’t make out the shapes in the dark. As she reaches the fire, she stumbles and kicks a rock.

_“Hey, stop being so clumsy!”_ a man shouts.

As she walks towards the wall, her eyes improve, and the people are exactly where she left them, fixated on the dancing shadows. A realisation dawns on her that no one knows she has left, let alone returned.

_“Hey! Everyone!”_ she exclaims.

Only one person grunts a reply, and another waves her away; the rest are still entrapped by the shadows.

Determined, she walks between the lines of people and the wall. She waves around and shouts excitedly, _“Everyone! Listen to me, there is a wonderful place outside of this cave that is rich and beautiful! You don’t need these shadows when there’s a whole world out there!”_

Furiously, a couple of men rage at her for disturbing the shadows. _“Out the way!”_ one demands, _“You’re blocking the wall!”_ shouts another. One man scowls at her, _“How dare she keep on? We must get rid of her,”_ he thinks.

But most of the people aren’t cruel. One elderly woman utters, _“darling, best get back in line,”_ and another says, _“this is the way we have always been.”_

_“But look behind you, there is a fire and these are just shadows!”_ the girl insists.

_“How dare you!”_ an elderly man exclaims, viciously cursing, _“Get in line or be gone!”_