A young man decided to seek out a tomb that legend said contained the secret to the meaning of life. After a long search, he found it in the Holy Land, hidden underground among some old Roman ruins. He looked in, but it was empty. He did not know why, but he felt a powerful sense of fear and dread as he entered. Even so, he continued in and explored every nook and cranny. He saw no books or scrolls…
A profane man died. He heard a voice tell him he would see both heaven and hell and then decide where to spend eternity. The man first found himself in hell, in a large room with no ceiling. There was an endlessly long table set up, filled with delicious foods. However, the people sitting at the table groaned in hungry misery. All the food was in the middle of the table. The people were tied to their chairs, so they…
A wise teacher came among a community of the blind to teach them how to cure their blindness. His cure was not perfect, but when applied fully, it restored much of their sight. The teacher was with them only a short time. When he left, only a few had learned incomplete forms of the cure and had only partially restored their own sight. As news about the teacher’s cure spread, his few followers began to teach the different forms of…
Two cities, each very distant from the other, sat on the same side of a great river. The river was wide and deep, with a powerful and fast current. Crossing the river was dangerous and difficult, but those few who crossed returned with stories of an unknown country full of mysterious wonders. The first city was named Hammon, and the second was called Sophrete. In Hammon, few citizens had ever crossed the river. Everyone generally agreed that reaching the other…
Returning to the subject of my previous post “It’s Getting Better All the Time,” I just wanted to share recent news about how the world is getting better: 1. Steady Decline in Major Crime Baffles Experts: The number of violent crimes in the United States dropped significantly last year, to what appeared to be the lowest rate in nearly 40 years, a development that was considered puzzling partly because it ran counter to the prevailing expectation that crime would increase…