The Man Who Carried Everything [FICTOID]

“The burden is too much for me to bear!  It’s inhumane!”

“Then why don’t you put it down?”

“’Down’?  Impossible!  Who will bear it if I don’t?”

“That begs the question if it should be borne at all.”

“Of course it must be borne!  Where would it go if I didn’t bear it?”

“Away?”

“Bah!  You are a sophomoric solipsist.  The burden must be borne, else it is not a burden!”

“Maybe if you stopped bearing it, it would cease to be a burden.”

“It must be borne!  If not by me, then who?”

“Maybe let others bear those parts of the burden that concern them.”

“All parts are interconnected, interlinked.  One can’t lay one part down without laying down all the others.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

“If I lay any part of my burden down, the world would grind to a halt.”

“Really?  Or do you merely think so, perhaps fear so?  In fact, maybe your fear is that if you lay your burdens down, nothing will change, that the world will creak along as normal – no, as usual; nothing about this world is normal.”

“I will not surrender my burden!”

“You won’t, eh?  Then would you mind shutting up about it?”

© Buzz Dixon