Febuary 2011 Article From Colonel Chuck Sanders

I recently had a discussion with a person that desires only to serve his community, the Big Island and Hawaii as a whole, I was very impressed with his unselfish attitude and compassion for the people of Hawaii and especially the Big Island folks. I had discussed the probability of having another medium to share my mopnthly articles as writing is my gift I wish to share.

To share our gifts brings out the best in us all!

There is a story about a very old man who had spent his life seeking the answer to the meaning of life. Many years ago there was this old man that was known in the community as a bit queer, he would sit on a corner, the same corner in a small town week after week, month after month and year after year pan-handling. The whole community knew him and they just sort of tolerated him and accepted him as a fixture in the community. Then people of the community would somehow give him enough donations to survive, so this went on as did he. Very few of the towns people ever really talked much to him and did not want anyone in the community seeing them talking to him fearing folks would think them a bit weird and strange and be ostracized from the community as well.
One day this traveling man, a tourist or whatever, went to the man and said to him,”I hear that you, in your younger days searched the world for the meaning of life, did you find the answers you sought?” The old man in his queer way told the traveler that he had not and he knew there was something he had missed. After some conversation the Traveler told the old man that if he wanted the true answers he sought then he would have to make one more journey. The traveler ensured the old man that the trip would be difficult, hazardous and in all likelihood would lead to his death. The old man told the Traveler that it would be a small price to pay to fulfill his mission on this journey called life by knowing the true meaning at last. After all his life as it is served no purpose in it’s present state.
For some strange reason the old man believed this traveler even though he had experienced much adversity and met many false profits and self-proclaimed wise men in his travels to seek the meaning of life.
The Traveler told the old man that in order to find the great truth of life he would have to travel east and when he got to this very large mountain called,”The Truth” he would have to climb to the very peak and at the very peak he would find an alter, inside a secret drawer in the alter he would find a book and in the book he would find the absolute truth of the meaning of life and it’s dwelling.
The Traveler let and after a couple days the old man realized he had another question for the Traveler, but when he asked what towns people would talk to him about the traveler no one had seen him but the old man. It was as though the Traveler had never physically existed, but the old man knew he was a messenger.
One day the old man just up and disappeared, and everyone in the town missed him as he was in a weird kind of way a constant, a form of permanence the folks could see, and now he was gone and actually missed. They began to realize he was the only constant and the town itself was in constant motion and turmoil, constant change and only the old man was a constant for them.
For the old man, he went off on his journey, and it took many more years to find the mountain called the truth. IT was only known to the local folks at the base of the mountain by this name. Well the old man began his climb to the peak, and he suffered immensely, he fell and would be injured, broken bones and many other adversities. Finally he was very old and feeble as he reached the peak. He was barely alive, and could only hope and pray he would be able to survive long enough to get to the alter and find the book. He feared he would not have the strength left to open the book. As he slowly crawled to the alter, he found the special drawer and he opened the drawer, as he struggled, he was able to get it on top of the alter which was the only place the book would disclose the information it held. Trembling hands, he opened the book, and in the book was mirrors! A book of mirrors!!
That is when his heart and mind was opened by the key the book held in the mirrors to the true meaning of life! The meaning of life was within him all along and yet he had spent his entire life seeking that which was within all along!

Many of us have fallen prey to this very search for a secret meaning that is within us. The moral of the story is there is no hidden secret to the meaning of life, it is within us and all we need do is search within and it will unfold before our very eyes. We are all unique and very special, our gifts shared with others will contribute largely to the gifts other process and we will be able to have a quality of life we could never have imagined.

My greatest hope and pray is that we seek to share our gifts with others along this journey called Life!

Love and Respect,
BIshop DR Chuck Sanders, Colonel