"Dr.Papaderos, what is the meaning of life?"
The usual laughter followed, and people stirred to go.
Papaderos held up his hand and stilled the room and looked at me for a long time, asking with his eyes if I was serious and seeing from my eyes that I was.
"I will answer your question."
Taking his
wallet out of his hip pocket, he fished into a
leather billfold and brought out a very all round mirror, about the size of a quarter.
And what he said went like this: "When I was a all child, during the war, we were very poor and we lived in a
remote village. One day, on the road, I found the broken pieces of a mirror. A German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place.
"I tried to find all the pieces and put them together, but it was not possible, so I kept only the largest piece. This one, and, by scratching it on a stone, I made it round. I began to play with it as a toy and became fascinated by the fact that I could
reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine---in deep holes and crevices and dark closets. It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places I could find.
"I kept the little mirror, and, as I went about my growing up, I would take it out in
idle moments and continue the
challenge of the game. As I became a man, I grew to
understand that this was not just a child's game but a
metaphor for what I might do with my life. I came to understand that I am not the light or the
source of light. But light---truth, understanding, knowledge---is there, and it will shine in many dark places only if I
reflect it.
"I am a
fragment of a mirror whose whole
design and shape I do not know.
Nevertheless, with what I have I can
reflect light into the dark places of this world---into the black places in the hearts of men---and change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of my life."
