WHO ARE YOU?

 So tell me, mortal man, who are you? You are nothing. Do you know that? you are nothing. A mere shadow passing by. Look at your life. What does it consist of? You are born. You grow up. You go to school. You become a lawyer, or a doctor, or a politician. You marry a wife or two. You buy a car. You build a house. You fall sick and spend your hard-earned money in getting yourself cured. Yet, you die all the same. And you are buried. Is that not all? Tell me, o mortal woman, who are you?

How proud we human beings are! We make ourselves the center of the universe. We separate ourselves from the universe, thinking that everything is under our control. We exploit the cosmos and treat it as we like, thinking that we really understand the mysteries of the world. Just because we manufacture airplanes and cars, just because we make rockets that fly in the sky, just because we manufacture atomic and chemical weapons, which can destroy our children and us, we think we are gods! Whether you accept it or not, this is the truth: You are nothing:

Sheer futility, Qoheleth says. Sheer futility: Everything is futile! What profit can we show for all our toil, toiling under the sun? A generation goes, a generation comes, yet the earth stands firm for ever...

I thought to myself, 'very well, I will try pleasure and see what enjoyment has to offer'. And this was futile too.... I resolved to embrace folly, to discover the best way for people to spend their days under the sun. I worked on a grand scale: built myself palaces, planted vineyards, made myself gardens and orchards, I amassed silver and gold, the treasures of kings and provinces; acquired singers, men and women, and every human luxury, chest upon chest of it... I then reflected on all that my hands had achieved and all the effort i had put into it's achieving. What futility it all was, what chasing after the wind! (Eccl. 1: 1-4; 2:1& 4; 8:11)