JSR: But what is this meaningless string of aims and goals? When one has a single goal, a single destination, this has meaning; but an infinite series of goals and destinations loses its sense of importance, and one would be tempted to go through the motions. O it would be better to be nothing after the grave, than to go on forever chasing a carrot dangling in front of the face.

Ezekiel: This is a wise realization. I was about to say exactly what you just said. For the sages all say, to the ones who come to them seeking the deepest wisdom, "Forget about wisdom; let’s play checkers." For to seek wisdom is only to play a silly game, though with our illusions we hold the deepest wisdom to be grave and important. In fact, the game of checkers and the deepest wisdom are one and the same, and each is equally profound and each equally senseless; but if everything is silly let it be so. And when Jesus was being crucified he said, "What is this nonsense they are doing to me? It’s some absurd little ritual, like washing the forearms three times before prayer." He knew that that whole situation he was in was like a child blundering and accidentally breaking one of his toys. To the child, it is everything; but as an adult the man will look back and say, "It was so silly of me to worry about that little toy, as if the world had ended when it broke." But enough of this; I am growing sleepy. My throat is sore from speaking, and before speaking with you I was with the other bums talking about sports all day.

JSR: But you were just getting to the wisdom I don’t understand. I won’t be able to sleep unless I hear it from you. Please, let us speak some more.

Ezekiel: You have eyes just as healthy as my eyes. You have ears that hear everything I hear. I do not know anything you don’t know. Why do you ask me for wisdom? Do you think my eyes have a special coating that allows them to see what you can’t? You are like a blind man, asking me what sorts of things are in the room; and yet your eyes are healthy, and you can see everything I can see. I am sleepy, and so I shall sleep; and there is as much wisdom in what I just said as in all the Law and Prophets.