Posted By Rich Bryant on August 2, 2009

The desert was not always his home, for the Bedouin was once a young man and lived at the largest oasis. There he and many, many others enjoyed the abundance of wealth that continuously emerged from the very earth itself – the wealth of water. Regularly merchants from distant places would stop by the oasis to take water, and there they invariably traded for shelter, food and entertainment.

And thus money, like water, flowed into the oasis and brought with it wealth. And with wealth came the construction of homes and the accumulation of possessions. The sound of music could be heard from every quarter. The people of the oasis began to become fat and lazy, and over years found themselves beset with the health problems attendant to such lifestyles.

As a young man the Bedouin enjoyed the rich life of the oasis, but with time the constant din of the music grew from annoyance to distraction, and so he found himself walking out into the desert occasionally as a means of achieving quietude. Occasionally, as he walked along the edge of the desert, he would come upon an ancient man who had spent his life traveling the desert between the many oases. The Ancient, too, came to the desert to seek its tranquility.

And so these journeys to the edge of the desert extended to days in duration, during which the Ancient shared his map of the desert and his secrets of navigating across the sandy expanse. At night the Youth and the Ancient would sit quietly among the dunes, watching the countless stars stare back at them, and drinking in the stillness.

Eventually the Ancient no longer appeared along the desert’s edge, and the Youth found himself yearning to make a journey to other places. Trading all his possessions for camels and provisions, the Youth set out across the desert. The Youth had become the Bedouin.

And that journey never really ended. At the many oases scattered across the desert the Bedouin made many good friends that he would otherwise never have known. He began to notice that, when he did arrive at an oasis, the water somehow tasted sweeter than anything he had ever tasted before. The music, which had once been a source of headaches, lifted his soul. During his journeys across the sandy expanse time would virtually come to a halt. Every night he would sit in contemplation, sometimes reading the great words of authors long past, with those same stars always looking down.

Eventually the Bedouin become aware of his personal transformation. He no longer resembled the oasis-dwellers of his youth. Where once he had been soft and weak, he now had become physically hardened and thoughtful. Where once he had taken completely for granted the taste of water and the sound of music, they now become intoxicating to him. On one visit to the oasis of his youth he recognized old friends who were bent over with age, even as he stood tall among them, with little sign of age.

There came a day when the source of water at the oasis of his youth began to run dry. Those who lived there began to panic as the source of life itself was withdrawn. Madness descended as the oasis-dwellers faced the stark reality of poverty and death.

And the Bedouin stepped back onto the desert.

Categories: Unconventional Wisdom
Tags: Bedouin