At the base of a large pit in the mountains of the Cascade Range,
surrounded by 360-degrees of tall, steep rock wall, there lived a small bale of pond turtles.
Allowing the turtles to stay alive, at the base, water regularly seeped up from an aquifer
and formed into little pools that they could drink from. A small amount of various vegetation
and insects shared the pit as well, which they could eat from. Although this kept most alive,
the turtles suffered because of their condition. Resources weren’t necessarily
limited but competition that formed around them often rendered them limited.
Generally, at best, they were uncomfortable, constantly oscillating into hunger and thirst,
hot or cold, bored or anxious. The turtles often fought with each other. They often
got sick. All eventually in some respect, all eventually dying, the surviving forced to watch.
They all felt trapped, caught in this pit of misery with nothing to ever fully satiate their
desires and free them from their pains. Naturally, nearly all the turtles felt an innate yearning to
escape the pit and spread out into the beyond above them; the bliss beyond their confines;
the freedom. However, the walls were far too tall for them to climb. And so,
the early generations remained stuck, suffering. Around this early time, many members would discuss
various ideas and philosophies surrounding the goal of escaping,
all with no true avail. As time would pass,
compelled by impulses and drives that culminated into a sort of lust slinging process,
some of the early generation turtles inadvertently reproduced, bringing more turtles into the pit.
Eventually, one of the more astute elder turtles came up with an idea.
It figured out that with enough turtles, they could all stack on top of each other in a sort
of ramp-like configuration and allow some of the turtles at the top to climb out and be freed.
The turtle shared this idea with the bale, and, after some convincing, everyone was on board.
Now, with the insight that having offspring could help solve their problem
and alleviate their suffering, the turtles began reproducing intentionally with this in mind,
birthing new turtles into the pit on purpose. As soon as the bale had enough offspring,
and the offspring matured to large enough size, the turtles all stacked on each other in a sort
of askew ramp configuration all the way up to the top of the wall. For the first time,
several turtles made their way out of the pit and into the beyond above it.
Following these several turtles climbing out, however, the remaining turtles
would soon find themselves without enough turtles left to climb high enough. And so,
they all climbed back down into the pit again. Now knowing that the process worked, though,
they began birthing more offspring with the intention of freeing more of themselves.
A system of sorts was established and embraced wherein the eldest turtles would be the ones
designated to leave first in order of their age, leaving the remaining younger turtles to wait
their turn and continue reproducing. Occasionally, there were also certain younger turtles who,
through either force, perceived importance, flukes in the system, persuasion, or all the
above, made their way out some time earlier. In general, the cycle of this system would be
accepted and repeated over and over, generation after generation, more offspring brought into the
pit, only to work the first two thirds of their life to survive and hope that they would make it
into the eldest position and finally climb out, finally find their reason and payout for it all,
finally become a member of their bale who made it, finally touch some state of freedom.
Ultimately, throughout the whole process, almost every turtle was born,
in some sense, to help solve their parents’ problem, their parents’ problem becoming theirs,
the new turtles eventually becoming compelled to birth more offspring to help solve what now
became their problem, and then repeat. A part of a later generation, one turtle
in particular, who was not particularly unique at all, and in fact was like many others in its view,
often found itself questioning, was it all worth the hassle? Was the measure of pain
worth the potential pleasure of the payoff? Was everything worth the trouble of being born?
It wondered and struggled with these questions, which ultimately made it question whether it
should participate in the whole system. Was it fair to birth more turtles to do the same,
simply to potentially make things better for itself, in hopes that its offspring would find
this agreeable? Of course, this turtle was aware that some turtles found value in the whole thing,
meaning in the pit, the pursuit of getting out, and the occasional pleasures along the way.
But this particular turtle found these other turtles to be delusional.
At best, it only envied them, knowing that it could never really see its life this way and find
sufficient justification in the suffering. Ultimately, this turtle realized only the
individual could decide for themselves if it was better or worse to have been born into the pit
or not. But it also realized that the paradox was that the individual could only decide once
they were born, and it was too late not to be. To this day, the turtles continue on in the pit,
some ignoring this issue, some unaware, some struggling or in revolt with it.
In some distance of some future, perhaps the turtles will figure out a way for an ultimate
and total escape of their entire population, and hopefully, for their sake, outside the pit
is what they’ve hoped for. But for now, the general suffering, it’s turtles all the way down.