Wow! This has to be one of my favorite stories ever, let alone on this podcast. I love a good philosophical tale, and attaching a story that's entertaining in its own right in such a way that the message doesn't overshadow is a tough balancing act but when it's done well (as it is here) the results are just amazing.
Mostly the story made me sad. I work with a few people who concentrate on work to the exclusion of everything else. I can't help wondering what they will think of their life when they are lying on their deathbed. Will they be content with the life they'd lived? Don't get me wrong, I like my job. But there are other things in life. Even though Gruen had a super-long lifespan, he spent that life reliving the lives of others, and then he is too broken to live a life of his own.
I wonder if there's a visible shift in the scholars on the wall to understand their life-wasting ways. I mean, the first scholar didn't have to spend any time reading other people's ideas. He just had his own words transcribed and then he could go do whatever he wanted. But once you get up into the dozenth scholars, then it is a major feat just to make it through the rest of the works. Gruen only managed it because Western carried him for 40 years. Without that he wouldn't have had a chance. Which makes me think that the later scholars fall into one of two groups:
1. Those who skipped a bunch of the wall for brevity's sake.
2. Those who actually interacted with the outside world to gain the aid needed to reach the end.
Anyone who didn't do one of these two things was doomed to die partway through the teachings.
Did anyone else think that the way he recorded his message was rather cruel, whether he meant it to be or not? It seems that ordinary people don't read the wall, so his message wouldn't do much for them. Certainly there will be other scholars, but if they read the wall sequentially like he does, then they will get all the way to the end and THEN read his message that might mean "you can learn more by living life than by reading the wall." But imagine how infuriating it would be to get that message at that time!!! You've spent your life to learn these teachings and at the end the message is "You paid the ultimate price, and for it, you get nothing."
I like how the idea of a lifespan limited by time rather than motion was such a foreign idea. That those who live their lives in motion are wasting their potential, when those people might say the same thing of him, because he has never really lived.
Great story!