Adam had walked 5 miles through the forest until he finally could see the cabin near the lake. He had made this trek upon the advice of a dying friend who had taken his last breath with a smile on his face and a sparkle in his eye.

“Go see the Old Wise One,” his friend had said. “He will tell you what you need to know.”

So Adam set out on a journey that brought him here. He had a question to ask the Old Wise One, for an answer he hoped would ease all his troubles, his failures and any new worries that would come into his 30-year-old mind.

After three knocks, the cabin door opened and there stood a man aged with lines and creases that were over shadowed by a look on his face that appeared to Adam to be almost childlike.

“Come in,” he said. “I’ve been expecting you.”

Adam was excited to think he had made this journey, to once and for all settle a big issue.

“So,” what can I do for you?” he asked Adam as they sipped a cup of herbal tea.

“I’ve been doing what most people do,” he said. “I got my education. I got a good job. I bought a new car and a new house, but I’m … I just feel like I’m never happy, and after my friend died, I’m worried that every day I live is just bringing me closer to my death, too.”

With a gleam in his eyes, the Old Wise One sipped his tea. Adam slipped to the edge of his chair and looked at him from across the room.

“What is the meaning of life?” asked Adam.

“Life has no meaning,” replied the Old Wise One.

Adam thought the man didn’t quite understand.

“I’ve come here to ask you just one question, and once I have your answer, I will go,” he said. “So what is the meaning of life?”

“Life has no meaning,” replied the Old Wise One again.

“Well. That’s what I’ve been thinking all along, so I walked 5 miles just to find out what I already know.”

Adam closed his eyes and shook his head. When he opened them, the Old Wise One was standing in front of him holding a red and white flower.

“Take this orchid into your hand and tell me what you see.”

“It’s beautiful,” Adam said, “and it feels like such a fragile thing.”

“There you have it,” said the Old Wise One.

“Have what?” asked Adam.

“When we are born, life has no meaning. We use our curiosity to explore and discover the beauty of the universe, but then,” he said, “then we grow up and lose ourselves in time and in space and are told by everyone that the meaning of life comes from competition and finishing the race in first place. We fill our minds with what the media tells us is truth. We see the universe as a cesspool of worthless temptation. We arrive at the conclusion that life has more pain than pleasure and all we’re doing is waiting to die.”

He pointed at the flower. “You have found the answer with what you see in the orchid flower. You found beauty in such a fragile thing.”

The Old Wise One went back to his chair. “With his death, your friend reminded you how fragile life is,” he went on, “but he saw that life is full of beauty and he found joy.”

Adam felt confused. “How do I know that life is full of joy just by looking at a flower?”

The Old Wise One sipped his tea. “When the astronomer looks at the stars in the night sky, he sees large balls of hydrogen and helium gases held together by gravity.”

“But that’s what they are,” said Adam. “We have to agree with what science teaches us.”

“You are correct,” said the Old Wise One. “But when the poet looks at the same stars, he sees mystical points of light that inspire him to wonder about the grand and glorious universe, and so he writes with inspiration that he brings forth from inside his soul.”

“So what you’re saying,” said Adam, “living is a matter of how we look at the things we see everyday and that what we see makes us feel something meaningful inside.”

The Old Wise One smiled. “Do not look with your eyes. Look with your soul.”

Adam took a deep breath. He stood up and extended his hand.

“Before you go, I must warn you,” said the Old Wise One. “Do not surround yourself with those who cannot feel the beauty of the flower because they have been infected with too much that is negative.”

He narrowed his eyes as he shook Adam’s hand. “Buddha said, ‘don’t let people with dirty feet walk though your mind.’”

Now Adam had a gleam in his eye.

“A point well taken, Old Wise One. I’ll ask them to wash their feet before we speak about life.”

The Old Wise One laughed so hard he had to hold his stomach, and Adam, for the first time in a very long time, laughed too.

Rich Strack can be reached at katehep11@gmail.com.