The thrill of the hunt

One of my favorite stories of all time is the short story by Stephen Vincent Benet, By the Waters of Babylon. I try to use the story to inspire others to do things beyond what they have been presented with in life. The main character in the story also discovers that what is sometimes held as valuable in life is that way based on something that at one time was true, but not true any longer. By the end of the story, he gets to lead a whole tribe of people into a new reality based on new values.

During the story, the father of the boy, who is a priest for the tribe, prepares his son for the rite of passage into adulthood and, consequently, for the priest position to follow. The boy is sent out to commune with the ancestors and to return full of wisdom. But, the boy follows his own path to find out the truth about life. When he returns, he tells his father of the truths that he learned while gone. The father doesn't really like the truths the boy has learned, so he tells the boy, "Truth is a hard deer to hunt," and later, "if you eat too much truth it will kill you."

I have always identified with the boy in the story because truth has always seemed a little relative to me. People have told me the same thing that the father told the boy. So I have pushed to find more realities, more truths, more wisdom. And while too much truth has not killed me, it is true that I find myself siding with the minority at times, or being ostracized at times, or standing with those who advocate radical change at times because of questioning reality. And while that hurts on occasion or causes turmoil, it is deeply satisfying to go to the nth degree to find what is true and what is not.