The Leaving

You leave, hoping the leaving will provide answers you haven’t found where you are. You search, expecting to find clues on the open road or maybe down a side street in a forlorn town whose future, from the looks of it, is uncertain. But there are no clues outside yourself. And there are no answers beyond the tip of your nose. Your search is fruitless, a waste of waning emotional capital. You could have traveled a thousand miles or a hundred-thousand miles. It wouldn’t matter; the truth you seek isn’t there to be found. In fact, it’s not even buried deep in the recesses of your brain. The kind of truth you’re looking for doesn’t exist.

Don’t take it so hard. You’re not the only lonely hunter stalking an imaginary prey. There are millions of us, beating our heads against walls of our own making, trying to break out of the cages we’ve so carefully constructed. We built those cages to protect ourselves… from something…while we sought answers. Yet we stand here wondering how we could have made the mistake of locking ourselves inside, leaving the answers to roam free.

How is it,then, we can leave? How can we leave when we’ve locked ourselves in cages? Ah, the answer is simple. We take the cages with us. Or, perhaps, the cages take us where they want us to go.