As I have mentioned countless times, I love a fable, paradox, koan, Secret of Adulthood, aphorism, or teaching story. I especially love a teaching story!

I recently read the novel Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar, and I highly recommend it. I love that novel.

In it, Ali, who is the father of the main character, Cyrus, reflects on a hadith he’d heard as a child. A “hadith” is a recorded saying or action of the Prophet Muhammad; these have been collected in various compilations.  

Ali recounts:

Once, when I was a boy, our teacher told us the hadith of the starving man. The man was dying in the desert, got on his knees and begged to God, “Please help me, I’m starving, nearly dead, too tired to continue looking for water. I don’t want to hurt anymore. Please, almighty Lord, take pity, end my suffering.” God, in his infinite wisdom, sent the man a baby. An infant to take care of. And so the man had purpose, a reason to stay alive.

This thought-provoking teaching story reminds me of a line from one of my favorite aphorists, Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach. She wrote, “People for whom we are a source of strength give us our support in life.”

It’s a beautiful observation.