Weight

Have you ever wondered why the sky has not fallen? What keeps the sky up there all the time, day and night?

The answer to your query is Atlas, son of Iapetus and Clymene. Like Iapetus he is also a Titan and he was punished by Zeus to hold up the sky for eternity. Got to love the Greeks, their mythology is so vibrant and diverse.

Let me paint a picture for you. Picture if you will, a man with a great weight on his shoulders, going towards his work place, bogged down, unable to move at greater than a snail's pace, with sweat pouring down off him in rivulets, gasping for breath and yet still moving. You can see the blood pour from his knees, smell the stench of his clothes and were you to touch his hands, they'd be clammy.

What would you say to such a man? He has no way of setting his burden down that he can see, and also nobody to take over his responsibilities. He is alone, carrying that demonic weight on his shoulders as if shackled to it by some invisible chains.

I present to  you a man who should in all aspects put that weight down and start running free. But, like Atlas he too has been tricked into carrying that weight on his shoulders, even though it makes his knees buckle and ruins his posture and takes away his strength.

Now imagine fifty such Atlas clones, each carrying a heavy weight on their shoulders. The weight is made up of anger, fear, negativity and depression. What would you tell these people with their illnesses to do? What would you tell Atlas to do?

I would just say one thing to him and these other hollow men and women with weights on their shoulders

Shrug

The Bilge Master