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There is a wonderful allegory in Book Seven of Plato's The Republic, often referred to as 'Plato's Cave.' It tells the story of men held prisoner, chained and shackled such that they cannot look to their left, their right or behind; rather they can only look forward at the wall directly in front of them.     

Behind them is a blazing fire and between them and the fire runs a corridor along which men pass carrying statues, tools, weapons and other objects. All the prisoners can see, however, is the shadows of these things projected on the cave wall in front of them.     

Some of the older prisoners, 'the elders,' have developed explanations as to what these shadows represent; what their meaning is.     

One day, a prisoner is released. Now free to wander the cave, he sees the fire and objects carried in front of it. This former prisoner comes to a true understanding of the origins of the shadows, and to his amazement, he sees that the shadows have often been misinterpreted.      

He hurries back to share the true meaning of the shadows with his fellow prisoners. But rather than welcome him back and embrace the truth and knowledge he brings them, his former friends ridicule him, particularly the elders, who even seek to take his life.    

Finally, the freed prisoner is let out of the cave into the world beyond, a world filled with radiant sunshine where he can now see the fullness of reality illuminated by the brilliance of the sun. You and I are like those prisoners. We see, as it says in Corinthians,' through a glass darkly .' We live in a world where, like those prisoners, our knowledge is imperfect and incomplete, a world of conjecture and illusion.      

While the 'elders' presume to know what the shadows mean, but they too are prisoners, and their shackles are just as firmly in place as our own.     

If ever an elder becomes less convinced of the meaning of the shadows, they know they must never show it, for truth can be dangerous, truth is destabilizing, and truth-telling is a revolutionary act. It is vital to limit the truth that the prisoners may access. Messengers must be blocked and envoys heralding other truth destroyed.     

I don't presume to be that prisoner freed from his chains who now longs to share the truth as only he can see it. I am a fellow prisoner, seeking as well to understand the meaning of the shapes and shadows that form our reality.     We will all leave the cave one day and will discover in that day, as we enter that new world filled with the dazzling brightness of truth, that our lives have been spent wisely engaged in a worthy cause or that so desiring to feel good, to feel safe, we have accepted unquestioningly the well-constructed version of the truth the elders have taught