The Hedgehog

Our world has a little hope, a little disappointment — I often think so; our world has a little joy, a little sorrow — none can escape

Happy people are always alike, while every unhappy person is unhappy in their own way. Drifting through life, one inevitably encounters both conditions.

And this world is rigid, unkind, and brimming with prejudice. That is why our lives are so barren and weary, so heavy and sorrowful. When those helpless moments arrive — those things we cannot change, those compromises we must make — we become like robins, wandering aimlessly, settling wherever the wind takes us. And one day, when we grow too tired, too exhausted to fly, we land somewhere, activate our self-defense mechanisms, and disguise ourselves as hedgehogs bristling with spines — growing numb, growing lonely, refusing all contact with the outside world in order to avoid being hurt.

Look around you. There are so many hedgehog-like people nearby. They care little for appearances, are not given to conversation, have no zeal for social life, and may even seem mediocre and ineffectual. Their hearts are as hard as steel fortresses, bristling with spines — though most of them are not particularly elegant about it. Yet the world, in truth, is neither as beautiful as we imagine nor as terrible as it appears. It is only that we are so immersed in our own worlds that we fail to notice what is happening outside — who has come, who has gone. Day after day, pain and joy alike dwindle into insignificance.

But someone once said: whatever this world may be, why not be bold with life? For sooner or later, we are bound to lose it. Those innocent dreams. Love that endures until death. The delicacies upon the tongue. The beauty of a landscape that pierces the heart.

As it turns out, life is still very beautiful, after all.

May you, in your solitude, never abandon the pursuit of happiness.
May you, unbeautiful, possess a kind and tender heart.
May you, in poverty, never be impoverished in spirit.
May your future match the measure of your hopes.
May you hold fast to the world of the spirit behind that door.
May you meet someone who can read the elegance behind your spines.