Leaving The Cave

John 8.12 (CEB)
Jesus spoke to the people again, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me won’t walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

John 12.44–46
Jesus shouted, “Whoever believes in me doesn’t believe in me but in the one who sent me. Whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. I have come as a light into the world so that everyone who believes in me won’t live in darkness.”

Plato
It is the task of the enlightened not only to ascend to learning and to see the good but to be willing to descend again to those prisoners and to share their troubles and their honors, whether they are worth having or not. And this they must do, even with the prospect of death.

I was born in a cave. I didn’t know this at the time, of course, because, like all the rest born in the cave, the darkness was all I ever knew. Sure, there was the central fire, ever burning, casting its shadows on our own even more shadowy existence. The Masters of the Flame routinely stoked the central fire, and, I thought, at least in part, our fear and despair.

I spent my life in chains until you arrived. Imprisoned as I was in this eternal night, I lived (if one could call it living) in an upright, coffin-sized cocoon that barely accommodated my somewhat ample frame.