The Inadequate Man

A young man once existed who felt himself inadequate. He seemed normal enough, but deep within him was a great frustration, a struggle against the way of the world. He felt that he could not tap into his own potential and met with constant disappointment. Nothing he set out to do ever bore fruit. He was considered among his peers a great failure. The day came when he had had enough and set out to a far-away land to seek the answer to this deep frustration.

“I have struggled with this anger, this mediocrity, my whole life,” he said. “I will try one last thing to remedy my plight.”

The land he journeyed to was rumored to hold great wisdom and many people ventured there in search of a Master. Upon arriving to the foreign land he immediately set himself the task of looking for a Master who could diagnose his malady of the soul. A few days went by and the young man found himself in the presence of one such Master.

“I am deeply troubled,” he said to the man. “This frustration inside me steals my strength and poisons my life. I have tried for years to be a better man, to do great deeds and succeed in my endeavors, but it seems life itself is against my efforts. Please, can you do something?”

The wise man looked him over. “Yes, I have seen someone in your state before. I can help you,” he said. The wise man gave him a strange staff with some carvings on the side.

“What does this say?” asked the young man.

“A great fish lives in this region. It holds the secret to your liberation from suffering. You will train for one year with this staff. Then you will challenge the fish and, once the battle is over, you will have what you seek and I will tell you what is written on that staff,” said the wise man.

So the young man went away with the Master to train for one year. The Master had an assistant who acted as a sparring partner for the young man as he learned the disciplines of combat and physical fitness. The Master also taught the young man meditation and stillness.

“Forget about your life during this year,” the Master said. “Focus on the fish. It is your only goal.”

A year passed and the Master told the young man that it was time. The Master, the young man, and the servant journeyed to the body of water that the great fish called home. By the time they reached the lake, night had fallen. The sky was clear and the moon was full. The Master nudged the young man and gave a nod. The man waded into the shallows with the staff in hand. Out in the distance, the great fish surfaced as if it had been waiting for him. There it lurked, cloaked in shadow and haloed by the light of the moon. The man readied himself.

The servant turned to the Master. “Can he actually defeat this fish? Does he even have a chance?”

The man did not wait for the Master to answer. He committed his weight into a leap and charged into the water after the fish. But just before he moved out of earshot he heard the Master’s response to the servant’s question.

“No.”

The man’s eyes went wide. The fish was on him. It jumped, dove, swatted, and bit. The man fought with all his strength, the strength of his year-long commitment, his dedication, his hatred of his own inadequacy, but it was to no avail. The fish’s onslaught had overwhelmed him. Soaking wet, covered in mud, and bleeding, he could sense in his own heart that the inadequacy was still there, eating away at him, that nothing he had done in the last year, that nothing he had done in his whole life, had ever changed who he was.

“I may as well try to fight the moon,” he thought. At that moment, he surrendered. He dropped the staff and his hands fell to his side. The fish, sensing his defeat, jumped from the water to deliver the final blow. Just as its teeth were about to sink into the man’s flesh it turned into water and splashed harmlessly against the man and washed away the mud and blood from his body.

The man Returned to shore. He glanced at the Master who smirked. He handed the Master the strange staff and thanked him for showing him the truth about himself.

“I see now why you made me this. I can return home now, the frustration in my heart is gone. I am free,” he said.

“Would you still like to know what the writing on the staff says?” the Master asked. The man nodded. The Master held the staff out with the writing facing the man. “It says- I am just a stick and you are just a man. That is enough.”

The man returned home and lived his life in peace. And it was enough.