The boy opens his umbrella, and as the umbrella shelters him from the rain and the wind he feels safe enough to start walking. This is not a road he knows, but it is the road he knows he must travel in order to find what he is searching for.
On his way home a man notices another man crawling on the the ground under a streetlight.
''What are you doing?'' he asks the man on the ground.
The man on the ground stops what he is doing, looks up at the man asking the question and answers:
''I'm looking for my house keys.''
''Let me help you'' says the first man as he bends down and begins to also search the ground for the keys.
Twenty minutes later and unsuccessful in finding any keys, the first man asks the man on the ground searching for his keys: ''Are you sure this is where you dropped your keys?''
''Nah,'' he says, ''but this is where the light is.''
Many of us have times in our lives when we feel as if we are searching for something, although exactly what that thing is, we don't know.
Often when we are beset by that gnawing feeling of that something is missing, we try to placate that feeling by trying different things.
''I need to socialise more, I need to have more fun, I need to get a better job, I need more money, I need more friends, I need a bigger boat, a bigger house, etc.etc.''
Bombarded as we are by media, it can be easy to believe that for whatever ails us, the solution is good looks, fame and money. Good looks and money can certainly make life a bit easier at times, but neither looks or money can guarantee that we will not have moments of feeling lost, or that there is not something missing somehow.
Regardless of our status, are human beings born with a need for knowing and understanding why we have life and what we are supposed to do with it?
This search for the meaning of life, (some call it the ''Human Condition'') does it have an answer, or is the answer the searching for it?
Have you ever had the experience when you feel that you are hungry, but you're not exactly sure what it is you are hungry for? If not, then in my case it goes something like this: ''Hmmm, I feel a bit hungry, but I'm not really sure of for what.'' I go to the fridge, open the door, and scan the content. Pull out one thing after the other, but nothing seems right. I close the fridge door and open the pantry door. Same thing, none of it seems right. I still feel hungry, I just don't know what I am hungry for so I grab some peanuts just because it's easy, and I do like them most of the time.''
If we are constantly feeling sorta ''hungry'', like there is something missing, and at the same time we are being bombarded with information telling us that what we need to do in order get rid of that uncomfortable feeling is lift that, tuck that, grow that, drink that, snort that, buy that, eat that, look like that, I don't think it strange if at times we feel confused and unsatisfied.
''Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how', writes Victor Frankl in his book ''Man's search for Meaning''.
Many of us may feel that we are too busy just living to have the time to delve deeply into the 'why' so when that niggling and persistent thought raises its head, we often tend to try to get rid of it one way or another.
(Life however can be very unpredictable and it is quite possible that we may suddenly come face to face with circumstances in which being able to answer the 'why' is what will keep us alive.)
If you, like many of us, at times feel like you are searching for something that you don't even have a word for, try a few steps down the less traveled roads, do not fear the unknown, because once upon a time all we now know, was unknown.
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