I was sleepless and I went outside in Cedarhurst. It appeared to me that Der Nister was talking to one of his characters, Sruli Gol. I was listening on the conversation:
Der Nister to Sruli Gol: Go away!
Sruli Gol: You are not here by accident. You have wondered onto the fork, it’s a privilege of a few.
Der Nister: What’s the bargain?
Sruli Gol: Choose, your soul or your life!
Der Nister: Why can’t I have both?
Sruli Gol: People don’t live by themselves and the tribes demand a soul as the price of admissions, most people don’t get to choose but for you and few others there is the challenge.
Der Nister: That’s not a bargain, without life there is no soul.
Sruli Gol: Give up your soul then. It says you should “choose life”.
Der Nister: I wish I could but you know that you gave me an impossible choice, heroism is the path to death. I beg you, please let me relinquish my soul.
Sruli Gol: You don’t mean it, you can’t. You curse is your soul, but you will remember my advice when your life slips away…
I turned on my cellphone and there was a fresh aphorism from Nassim Taleb: “Your principal and hardest to defeat enemy is your own profession …the few occasional heroes.” Not only a profession, I thought. The Three Headed Monster galloping down the avenue.
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