The Man and the Hole

A man went walking through the woods.  As he walked he breathed deep of the fresh air.  His eyes and ears drank up all the beauty around him.  Though he’d walked this path many times before, this time, He was so enthralled with what he saw and what he heard that he decided to stray from the beaten path.  Distracted by creation, he lost track of time, and soon the sun plummeted below the horizon like a weary eyelid closing for rest; as it did shadows chased each other among the magnificent trees.  One of these shadows happened to disguise a deep hole and tripped the man who fell down the deep shaft. 

When the man awoke, he was lying on his back looking up at a tiny sliver of the moon that gave off just enough light to remind him where he was and how he got there.  The light wasn’t necessary to illuminate the bump on his head or the slight trickle of blood running down his cheek, but aside from a mild headache he was more concerned about being stuck in a hole than he was with the bump on his head. 

As the first hour passed the man pondered if he could climb out, but after a few attempts he realized that the walls of the hole were too unstable and would likely cave in if he kept trying.  Besides, there was very little for the man to grab onto. 

The second hour the man realized that all manner of venomous snakes and insects could inhabit that dark pit with him.  The third hour his mind turned to the forecast—if a sudden storm popped up, it too could collapse the hole.  The fourth hour he realized he’d walked quite a ways off the beaten path—would anyone else come along and travel close by enough to the hole to hear his cries for help?  The fifth hour the man’s stomach reminded him that he was well overdue for a meal, and he contemplated the idea of starving in that hole over the course of many lonely days. 

By the 6th hour, the man was at his wits’ end.  He began asking himself questions.  “Why did I stray from the beaten path?”  “Why did I lose track of time?”  “How did I not see this giant hole?”  Slowly, as it is in the nature of man to do, his questions turned from his own foolishness to that of another—“How could God let this happen to me?”  “If there really is a good God, an all-loving God, couldn’t He have sent me a sign or illuminated my path just a little more so I would have seen the hole?” 

As he continued to think it hit him.  “I walked that path a hundred times, even at night, and even then the beaten path is still easy to see and safe.  But this night, this night I strayed from that path.  God didn’t do this to me—He’s made the beaten path visible night or day.  I stepped out of those boundaries and got myself in here.”  This is what I earned. 

At that point, he stopped and prayed, “God, I’m sorry I started blaming you for my own stupidity.  Please help me—I need your mercy and grace.”  Exhausted, the man pulled up a rock laid his head on it and passed out from exhaustion. 

The next morning, the man woke up, looked up, and saw the figure of an old man peering over the edge of the hole.  He shot up and cried, “Get me outta here!”  The old man threw down a rope and helped the man climb out.  The old man gave the man who’d fallen in the hole a jacket, a bottle of water, and a candy bar.  As they headed back to their cars, the old man told the man from the hole, “It was the strangest thing.  I woke up, ate breakfast and had the crazy idea of going for a walk.  I haven’t walked this trail in years.  Not only that but right after breakfast I suddenly wanted a candy bar and a water to take along.  So, I put on my jacket, and I came for the walk. 

About 30 yards into my walk, I found this rope.  Some camper must have dropped it.  When I reached a certain spot on the trail something told me to get off the beaten path.  In 40 years of walking this trail I had never ventured from the beaten path, and here I was going Lord knows where.  Then I found your hole and saw the skid marks where it looked like someone fell in and when I looked down, there you were, and here I had a rope, a jacket, a water, and a candy-bar.  Boy, someone must be lookin’ out for you or you’re just the luckiest son of a gun I’ve ever met.”

Both men grinned and had a suspicion of which was the correct answer.   As they came to the clearing where their vehicles were parked the man from the hole felt the urge to warn new travelers who’d come to hike, so he thanked the old man, exchanged contact info so he could treat the old man to dinner, and they parted ways.  He went up to at least three different people and said, “Whatever you do, stay on the beaten path—you don’t want to end up in a hole like I was.” 

The first person, a younger man, shrugged him off—“You must be some kind of idiot for falling in a hole like that.  That couldn’t happen to me; I’m not that blind or stupid. Besides, I brought my cell phone in case I get into any trouble.” 

The second person was curious—“About where was this hole so I can avoid it?”  Not recognizing the excessive curiosity of the individual, the man from the hole told him where it was. 

The third person, slightly older than the man from the hole thanked him, “I appreciate you telling me how to avoid that pitfall.  I pretty much always stick to the trail, but that just reinforces my desire to do so.” 

The man from the hole felt his duty was accomplished so, he went home, got cleaned up, and rested. 

The first person he’d warned, the young man who shrugged him off, went traipsing through the woods with arrogant vigor.  He never even considered following the beaten path—that was for wimps and the less adventurous.  Every step he took he became even more confident making jokes in his mind about “that idiot who fell in a hole—how stupid can you be?” 

A couple of miles into his hike he burst out into laughter.  He was so distracted laughing that he fell headlong into another hole hitting his head on the far wall on the way down breaking his neck and landing on his back at the base of the pit—in broad daylight.  Even though his neck was broken, he was still alive and still cognitive.  Immediately he thought of his cell phone, but having broken his neck and severing his spinal cord, he couldn’t use it, much less reach it.  His laughter turned into horror as he realized what he’d done. 

If only he could take back his arrogance and disrespect.  If only he’d heeded the warning of someone who’d suffered a similar experience.  If only!  It was too late for that.  His injuries were too severe.  He lay there for a few hours contemplating his own foolishness before his internal injuries drained his life away.  While he felt no pain, he watched as death overcame him.  A few days later a major storm came along and caved the hole in on top of him.  His body would never be found, and his family would never know how his arrogance would cost him is life. 

The second person, the curious man, immediately headed out to find this hole that the man had spoken of.  His curiosity couldn’t resist such an interesting landmark, so he set out in search for it.  It didn’t take him long before he found it exactly where the man from the hole had said it would be.  He walked around it a few times pondering how it got there, how deep it was, and the riskiness of being so close to it. 

It made his adrenaline pump, and it exhilarated him.  He grabbed up a few stones and tossed them in listening and counting the seconds it took for him to hear them hit the base. He became so curious that he crouched down at the edge hoping to get a better look.  As he did, the wall gave way, and he fell in breaking his leg on landing. 

He too sat there pondering the foolishness of his mistake.  If only he hadn’t been so curious.  If only he hadn’t gotten so close.  Eventually, his ponderings happened on to a thought—“This isn’t my fault!  If it wasn’t for that idiot who fell in here in the first place warning me about this thing I would never have known it existed and I’d never have fallen in here—it’s all his fault!”  He thought continuously about what he’d say to that man if he ever made it out of there.  He sat in that hole for three days simmering on his hatred for that man.  The burning in his stomach, the shivering of his body, and the peeling of his lips only enraged him more. 

About that time, the man previously rescued from the hole thought, “Maybe someone else has fallen into that hole?  I’d hate for someone to die in there.  I remember what it was like for me.  I’ll make a warning sign and some flags to put near it to warn people of it then maybe people will not suffer the same fate as I did.”  So he gathered some materials and made a sign and took it out to the hole.  Just in case, he also took a rescue rope, a jacket, a bottle of water, a candy bar, and a cell phone. 

When he got there, he noticed part of the wall had caved in, so he called down and, sure enough, someone was down there.  Since the curious man had broken his leg, he couldn’t pull himself out with the rope, so the man previously rescued from the hole lowered down the jacket, the bottle of water, and the candy-bar and called 911 with his cell phone.

A rescue team showed up within the hour.  They were astonished that such a hole was there and that they’d never had to rescue someone before.  They worked and pulled the curious man out of the whole, tended to his leg and started hauling him out of the woods on a gurney.  On their way out the curious man with the broken leg told the paramedics that he wanted to press charges against the man who told him about the hole.  The paramedics were flabbergasted.  “How could you sue the man who saved your life?” 

The curious man told them how the man from the hole had warned him about the hole—if he hadn’t been warned, then his curiosity would never have driven him to fall in the hole in the first place.  The Paramedics just laughed.  The curious man with the broken leg became angry and started yelling at the medics until one of the medics looked him square in the eye and said, “Mister, if the man had pushed you into the hole you would have a case.  But you deliberately chose to ignore his warning and sought out that hole leading to your accident.  If it weren’t for him coming back to post warnings you’d be in there still —you owe him your life.  If you can’t see that, then you’re a fool and didn’t deserve to have been saved.” 

Sadly, the curious man clung to his innocence, and the more people told him how foolish he was, the more bitter and angry he became until he alienated all those who cared about him. 

The first man rescued from the hole took his experience and used it to save others.  He put up warning signs and flags and worked with a team of others to map out other dangerous holes and place more warning signs.  Through his efforts, no more people were injured or killed by the holes in those woods.