The grass was green enough, and the sheep was quite black. They called him the black sheep; he did not care, and he was not ashamed of being different. As long as he was not hungry, he owed no one anything; he belonged to the clever-but-unwilling-to-work crowd. In other words, he did not graze enough for the shepherd\u2019s liking. All that was expected of him was simply to be\u2014to exist, and nothing beyond that. But there were things beyond being. There was the unavoidable madness of being black, or perhaps a divine nudge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We do not know whether it was because of necessity or because he had grown too comfortable, but the black sheep began philosophizing: \u201cIs this life grass? What is the meaning of meaning?\u201d What was troubling this black sheep? \u201cYour job is difficult too, brother,\u201d said an ordinary sheep\u2014especially when you have been separated from the flock and from the ordinary by pitch-black wool, and on top of that, there is philosophy involved. The black sheep could no longer graze without questioning the grass. And yet, within the common denominator of being a sheep, within the circle of sheephood, his marginality remained; he still ruminated, but now in his own sentences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He investigated, he questioned: \u201cWhat can we know?\u201d he asked. \u201cWhat is possible? Who, with whom, when; name, city, where?\u201d And so on and so forth, and life passed with philosophy. Old age had given him a strange, proud air. Now it was time to make the great philosophy of the little head heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the time for slaughter came, he looked around him and said, \u201cLife\u2026 the meanings within us\u2026\u201d He could not finish his sentence. They said afterward that words were meaningless, and that the only truth was to be temporary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At first, no one supported him, but his death proved useful to someone. The gray sheep wrote songs in his name. Being gray became something to praise, in opposition to black and white. And so, this is a poem written after him:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is prey, there is a hunter, there are guns in this world;\nbeing shot from behind, lonelinesses...\n\nThere is either fear or love, always absences;\nthis desire, that longing, always deficiencies.\n\nWhat you think is yours is actually made of what is lacking;\nyour soul is not yours, nor was your name given by you,\nnot even your desires were determined by you.\n\nWhat do you have to lose?\n\nIn this vast realm, the world is not even a point;\nneither does the world belong to you,\nnor does the world care about you.\n\nForgive me, but you are under the delusion that you matter;\nlife is ordinary, and you are ordinary;\nwith your ordinary desires,\nwhat extraordinary thing could you possibly lose\nbesides the extraordinary act of not wanting?\n\nEven the best among us died,\nimmediately after the worst among us.\n\nIt has been a long time since the poet of the most beautiful poem\nleft behind that beauty.\n\nThe greatest love existed in one of the ancient languages;\neven the language itself has been forgotten.\n\nThe greatest warriors have become cartoons now.\n\nNo one remains in the end;\nthere is nothing left to lose...\n\nWhat else will you do, if not become a hero?\n<\/code><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The grass was green enough, and the sheep was quite black. They called him the black sheep; he did not care, and he was not ashamed of being different. As long as he was not hungry, he owed no one anything; he belonged to the clever-but-unwilling-to-work crowd. In other words, he did not graze enough for the shepherd\u2019s liking. All that was expected of him was simply to be\u2014to exist, and nothing beyond that. But there were things beyond being. There was the unavoidable madness of being black, or perhaps a divine nudge. We do not know whether it was <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[216,26,116,188],"class_list":["post-1481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-story-uncategorized","tag-future","tag-individual","tag-story","tag-vision","has_thumb"],"yoast_head":"\n
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