The Moral Vision
The Life Force
~ 18 ~
THE LIFE FORCE
A creeper growing in a courtyard once had the
misfortune to have its roots and branches buried
under mounds of earth and rubble when the house
was undergoing repairs. Later, when the courtyard
was cleaned up, the owner of the house cut away
the creeper, which had been badly, damaged, and
even pulled out its roots so that it would not grow
again. The whole courtyard was then laid with
bricks and cemented over.
A few
weeks later, something stirred at the place
where the creeper had been rooted out. The bricks
heaved upwards at one point as though something
were pushing them from below. This appeared very
strange, but was dismissed as being the burrowings
of rats or mice. The riddle was solved when some of
the bricks were removed, and it was discovered that
the creeper had started growing again, although in
a sadly distorted form. As it happened, not all of its
roots had been pulled out, and when the time of the
year came around for them to grow, life began to
stir within them and they pushed their way up
through the cement to the sunlight. It is one of
