A long time ago, relaxing in nature, "forever young, forever drunk", I spotted an old man herding goats in the nearest field.

The old man is great: with a big gray beard, clean, respectable. I was irresistibly drawn to talk to him. I gathered my courage and with the mental phrase "whatever will be, will be" moved in his direction. I struck up a conversation.

The old man turned out to be a dacha neighbor - a former doctor, the whole family are doctors. Son - urologist, daughter - cardiologist. He herds goats. Word by word. I started guiding him toward spiritual topics, like, how does he look at the world? What did he understand over his long life? I remember I really wanted to soak up wisdom from him. I looked at him as at Aristotle.

But it turned out quite differently. The old man turned out to be an impenetrable, complete, ironclad materialist. Absolutely deaf to spiritual topics. What God? What Cosmos? What stars?

He was even taken aback that one could reflect on something like that. Slightly embarrassed, he sincerely admitted that his life is in no way connected with it. His wife, now that's something - she seems to go to church, but he doesn't. No regret, no remorse. Nothing. A complete zero.

The old man is at his last breath, and he thinks about how deftly he got the slate for the fence 30 years ago. Nobody had that, but he did. Everything with him is about "getting". The country has already changed 2 times, and he's all about "getting". It even made me sick.

And the old man isn't bad, it seems, but somehow ingrate. Empty, plastic.

F.M. Dostoevsky has a most wise phrase "Was smart all his life - and so he turned out an old fool".

Andrei Tkachev, with his enormous experience of communication, spoke very well on this topic.

It turned out that "old fool" is a fairly common phenomenon. When by old age a person doesn't grow wiser, doesn't strive for holiness, but remains as dull as a doornail. It's a pity for such an old age.

Whoever believes in what - gets what.

2022-09-11

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