[MD] The Madman: The Seven Selves

[MarshaV]

The Madman:  The Seven Selves        by      Kahlil Gibran

---

  In the silent hour of the night, as I lay half asleep, my seven 
selves sat together and thus conversed in whispers:


First Self: Here, in this madman, I have dwelt all these years, with 
naught to do but renew his pain by day and recreate his sorrow by 
night. I can bear my fate no longer, and now I must rebel.

Second Self: Yours is a better lot than mine, brother, for it is 
given me to be this madman's joyous self. I laugh his laughter and 
sing his happy hours, and with thrice winged feet I dance his 
brighter thoughts. It is I that would rebel against my weary existence.

Third Self: And what of me, the love-ridden self, the flaming brand 
of wild passion and fantastic desires? It is I the love-sick self who 
would rebel against this madman.

Fourth Self: I, amongst you all, am the most miserable, for naught 
was given me but the odious hatred and destructive loathing. It is I, 
the tempest-like self, the one born in the black caves of Hell, who 
would protest against serving this madman.

Fifth Self: Nay, it is I, the thinking self, the fanciful self, the 
self of hunger and thirst, the one doomed to wander without rest in 
search of unknown things and things not yet created; it is I, not 
you, who would rebel.

Sixth Self: And I, the working self, the pitiful labourer, who, with 
patient hands, and longing eyes, fashion the days into images and 
give the formless elements new and eternal forms--it is I, the 
solitary one, who would rebel against this restless madman.

Seventh Self: How strange that you all would rebel against this man, 
because each and every one of you has a preordained fate to fulfil. 
Ah! could I but be like one of you, a self with a determined lot! But 
I have none, I am the do-nothing self, the one who sits in the dumb, 
empty nowhere and nowhen, when you are busy re-creating life. Is it 
you or I, neighbours, who should rebel?


When the seventh self thus spake the other six selves looked with 
pity upon him but said nothing more; and as the night grew deeper one 
after the other went to sleep enfolded with a new and happy submission.

But the seventh self remained watching and gazing at nothingness, 
which is behind all things.





Shoot for the moon.  Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars...