The Vendor's Benefactor

A man was traversing the streets of New York City on a fine summer afternoon in 1914. His name was Gideon Wainston. Strolling briskly past the merchants and vendors, cane in hand, he was on his way to meet a disgruntled old man who was also quite influencial in the financial world. Many places he would rather be were forming in his mind as he walked, and he quickly fell into a state of bad humor at his misfortune. In his reverie of lamentation, he didn't notice someone step out in front of him, and he thus collided with the unfortunate pedestrian with a thud and they both fell to the ground.

"I am most sorry my fine sir, for running into you!" said Gideon.

"No trouble, no trouble at all, my good man, God be with you! Farewell!"

As the man turned to leave, Gideon muttered quietly, "Religion. Pft. God be with me indeed."

Hearing this, the man whirled around and said, "And why sir, would you say such a thing?"

With an impatient wave of his hand, Gideon said in an agitated voice, "You foolish men carry with you the burden of a God that does not exist! Why, sir, would you do such a thing, when you very well have the freedom to do as you please! Why sir, must you set up traditions and laws of a so called "god" that you have no proof of existing? You will surely die with no fear of death, so inamorate of your knowledge that you will live on afterwards, and yet you have no way of confirming that there is more than what you see. What evidence would you have of your god's reality beyond that which you have been told? As such, why should you believe what you are told, simply because you are told it? God be with me indeed!"

And upon his brow the man had a bead of sweat, for he was amazed at this man's bold arguements and compelled to agree with them. But upon opening his mouth to do so, a thought occurred to him, and he relenquished this line of thinking to give birth to a new one, and thence he spoke it:

"And so then, sir, we are but specks of nothing in a world of nothing, and with no purpose but to enjoy our fleeting blip in time that we refer to as our life? My dear sir, it may very well be that when the days of men are over and all that once was light and happy is gone (for when Man falls, so shall their happiness), what shall be left, but a dark and hopeless void (for with man and happiness also died their hope) filled with nothing but pointless galaxies spiraling off into hopeless infinity? Are we but nonessential entities, tangled masses of subatomic particles revolving around each other, unaware of what they form? Or are we of more substance than that, are we beyond the simple physical whims that we can see and hear, do we posess a soul, something that we shan't ever fully comprehend that makes us strong and noble, gives us the will to live and the drive to do great and mighty things? Would war continue without us, or must there be a human desire for it? Must happiness die with us? Must we leave reality without a footprint? For were we really here if there is no one to find evidence of us? Who is to say that we are real and who is to say that we exist if we are but pointless, mangled corpses that posess a momentary life? For what is life? What would you call it? Is charity but a flash of a synapse, or the desire of a heart? Is it the blip of a neuron that makes us love, or is it within a soul? Do we feel compassion simply out of selfish, animal necessity, or is there, beyond it, a reason, a direction?

"What does a tree make of its life? What does a goldfish make of its existance in the bowl? Why do the single celled paramecia continue to live? What gives them the drive to continue? To reproduce? Why? Simply so that their offspring may do the same? To what end are they going? What destination are they ultimately pursuing? Indeed, what destination are we all pursuing, but by your logic simply to die? Do we live to die? Or do we live, do we want to live, because we know that we who die shall not really die? Truly I tell you in the grand configuration of all that exists, all that doesn't exist, all that may exist, or has the potential to do so, when you look upon the universe and beyond, and see the splendor of all of it, can you really say that you were there within it for no reason? Can you rightly say that you are but a tangled web of organs and electrical currents, of bones and muscles, and are not really alive? Again, what is life? Truly, there is no Scientific explanation deep enough to fully explain the profundities of why we are and why we aren't, what we are and what we aren't, for what are we? Ask a man of your stature and caliber, and you shall answer with naught but the answer, "we are humans", for what more can you say? As for I, I say what all the men of old spake, that we are stewards of the earth, and that deep within what is and isn't and what could be, the void between sleeping and waking, the difference between dreaming and wishing, there is something giving it direction, and I hope to meet it someday. This is why I believe in God, my dear sir, and what can you say of yourself? Therein, I follow thither what I know is the only thing that can be proven indeed."

Gideon staggered back, astonished, and was at a loss for words grand enough to combat the man's retort. Dropping his cane, he raced with absolute disregard for people in his way back to his home and remained there for several days and was torn with confusion.