Not long ago the HB and I were watching a chat show on the telly. The interviewee was an older comedian. He’s very successful and quite wealthy. He was wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt with sandals. His eyes were concealed with dark glasses. His demeanor seemed as if he had looked into his soul and had seen an abyss.

Everyone must go through the ‘darkest part of the longest night’ at some point in their lives: it is a moment when we have nowhere to look for answers but into our own soul. The measure of the person is how we emerge from that night.

You can’t lie to yourself at that very moment, but the next morning it’s ‘truth or dare’ time. When you look into your own soul in that long night, if all there’s an abyss in your soul, then that’s what you’ll see. Of course no one else need know, but you’ll always know. You’ll never be able to shake it.

This is as close as we’ll get to the ‘eye of the needle’ moment until we see that white light. What’s the ‘eye of the needle’ moment? Well, it’s that moment when you finally understand that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:24)

Yup. No pockets in that shroud. You’re going to take out what you came in with, albeit a not quite so fresh and firm.

So, should this depress you? The short answer is, no. We all have the same destination in life; it’s just that we work from different road maps. Also, if you can look into that mirror on that very long night and come away more knowledgeable than you were before; then you will probably face the ‘needle’ with more confidence.

Notice that I didn’t say you’d be happy about what you see. It’s not about happy, or unhappy, pleased, or displeased. It’s about knowledge and learning. We all have those places in our souls that we’d prefer the world not know about. As a matter of fact, there are those places in our souls that we’d rather our nearest and dearest didn’t know about. It’s how we deal with that knowledge that is the measure of us when the sun rises the next day.

By the way, if you do see an abyss, it’s not the end of the world. You can start to build a bridge. Of course, you’ll have to learn how . . .

*Don’t shoot me; I’m only the piano player!