Many thousands of years ago, when people were much more
ignorant than they are today, there lived a boy who wanted to know all there
was to learn about everything. After all, his grandfather was a sorcerer who
could perform many wonderful miracles and see into the future. His grandfather
could make fire and turn water into stone. But this wasn’t enough for Caleb (The
boy’s name was Caleb, you may have guessed). He wanted to know EVERYthing.
His father called him foolish, because his goal was far too
ambitious. His father told him, “Your grandfather has had many wonderful
visions of things I cannot explain. And if I could explain them, you would
never be able to understand them. To realize your ambitions, you would have to
travel all over the world and learn from the very wisest of men in each country
you visit. And even then you would not be able to learn all there is to learn,
because even the wisest of men are still learning. Besides, it takes great
wealth to travel, and you are penniless. I am too poor to even buy you proper
clothes, not to mention furnish
the means to travel.”
Caleb’s grandfather was Walter the Wizard! Walter had the
power to leave his body and travel anywhere he wanted. In his travels, he had accumulated
many wonderful gifts from the most wealthy of kings, sultans, potentates,
shamans and seers, as well as from prophets. When he heard of Caleb’s ambition,
he smiled, for he himself had had such an ambition in his youth. It reminded
him of a gift he had received from a powerful Pasha in Persia. It was nothing
more than a trinket really, but it might be a useful learning lesson for Caleb.
It was a little brass lamp containing some very pungent oil, and according to
the Pasha, the fragrance from the burning oil had magical properties. Walter
had lit it a few times, but was never able to get it to work, which may have
been because he found the odor from the burning oil revolting. Now he had to
conjure up a vision of which pile of stuff he had put it in.
Finally, after wracking his brain and performing his ancient
incantations, he had the tiny lamp in his hands. It was tarnished and in need
of polishing, but he would leave that for Caleb to do. He had some very fine
powder that could cause the brass to glimmer like gold along with a bit of lamb’s
wool which he would also give to his grandson. Walter sniffed the wick to see
if there was still some oil remaining in the lamp, and winced. Clearly, there
was.
Caleb was thrilled to receive this gift from his grandfather,
even though it was tiny, and tarnished and dirty. It was the only thing he had
ever remembered receiving from anyone. Well, from anyone of importance that is.
He had received a bouquet of red and purple flowers, one time, from Hannah, but
that was not nearly as important as this lamp from his grandfather. Well sure, his
sister, Hannah, was very good looking, in fact she was downright gorgeous, but
what good was that if she didn’t have a brain in her head. It seemed like she
was always babbling about stuff that didn’t make any sense.
That evening, Caleb took the lamp up to his room in the
hayloft along with the powder and lamb’s wool that his grandfather had given
him and proceeded to polish the lamp. As he rubbed the lamp the tarnish began
to fade and the brass began to gleam like gold. It was hard work, because the
little lamp had been left to gather a lot of tarnish for many centuries. Caleb
was determined to finish the job before going to bed, so that in the morning he
could proudly show it to his grandfather. It was just before midnight, when he
finally removed the last bit of tarnish, and his parents were already asleep by
then.
As he rubbed the lamp one final time, to his tremendous awe
and amazement, a great cloud rose out of the lamp; swirled around the loft and
transformed into a mighty genie! Now Caleb had heard about genies before in
stories but never did he ever suppose that he would actually see one! This was
astonishing!!! The genie spoke to him in a very loud voice, “Master, you have summoned
me. What do you wish? You have only one.”
Caleb stammered. He was not prepared for this.
The genie spoke again, “Take your time, Master, to gather
your thoughts. Unlike humans, I have great patience.”
After 37 and a half seconds the genie spoke again, “Well!
Have you gathered your thoughts? Do you have a request for me? You have only
until sunrise, at which time I shall return to the lamp, never to be roused for
another thousand years.”
Caleb replied, “Yes, I have just one wish; I want to have
access to all of the knowledge and wisdom of the universe.”
Now it was the genie’s turn to be astonished. He didn’t
anticipate such a great request from one so young. Instantly, the genie
produced a many sided metal box with strange symbols on each side. It was very
heavy and had a strange glow. On the top was a slit with a piece of silk ribbon
protruding from it. The genie said nothing, but watched with a feint quizzical
smile as Caleb examined the box.
Finally Caleb said, “What is this? I asked for access to all
of the knowledge and wisdom of the universe, and you give me a useless box of
ribbon.
This, of course was exactly the reaction the genie expected.
“Pull on the ribbon, and read what it says”.
“Ok, it says a square has four equal sides, a pentagon has
five equal sides, and so what is that all about?” Caleb asked, pulling the
ribbon some more. “Hey, this time it says INFINITY means forever, without end,
unlimited.”
“Yes.”, said the genie, “Look at the symbols on the sides of
the box. The one that looks like an eight on its side is the symbol for
infinity. The ribbon you pull out of the box, no matter how much is finite, as it
has a measureable length. The ribbon remaining inside the box is infinite…”
“So what does that mean?” asked Caleb.
“You would be wise to ask your sister”, said the genie, “she
is older and understands certain things better than you do”.
“What? Ask my dumb sister, Hannah?” asked Caleb in a high
pitched excited voice.
But at that moment the sun began to rise, and the genie
disappeared in a great puff of smoke and returned to the little lamp.
And in the following moment, Hannah poked her head up into
the loft to tell Caleb that breakfast was ready. When she saw the box, she was
totally engrossed. “Wow, what is that? Caleb, where did you get it? What a
beautiful ribbon it is! Is it magical? Does it play music?”
So Caleb told her everything that had happened. “The genie
told me that the ribbon is the source of all Knowledge and wisdom, and the more
ribbon we pull out the more we learn. He told me that the ribbon outside the
box represents all of our knowledge and the ribbon inside the box is infinite”.
“Ah, I see”, said Hannah. “So the ribbon inside the box is
our ignorance, and it will always be greater than our knowledge, no matter how
much ribbon we pull out, no matter how much we learn”.
“Yeah”, mumbled Caleb, “something like that. Hannah wasn’t
as dumb as he thought”,
he thought.
Every day, Caleb pulled out more and more ribbon and as he
read what was on the ribbon he learned more and more wonderful things and he
also gained much wisdom. As he grew older he passed the box of ribbon on to his
sons and daughters and they in turn passed it on to their sons and daughters. Until
it seemed like there was miles and miles of ribbon and knowledge and wisdom,
until now to this day there is enough ribbon to reach to the moon and back, and
yet there remains an endless supply of ribbon inside the box.
©By Harold Gower December
2009
