Our Hunt for the Whole

CALEB is a clay doll who has been created with a hole in his heart. He sleeps deeply atop a work table in a workshop. He has no knowledge of who he is or where he has come from. He only knows that he wishes to fill the hole in his heart.

THE VIRTUES: The gods of answers.

INTERNET: The god of will.

SELF-IMPROVEMENT BOOKS: The gods of human happiness and success.

THE ARCHITECT: The Creator and owner of the factory

Caleb: (Slowly stands up from the table, blinking slowly) Where am I!? Who am I!? Why am I empty?

The Virtues: We are the lords of Answers. You will find the remedy to your pain, the plug for your hole, by searching for the Architect in this workshop.

Caleb: Very well, if this Architect can fix me, then I will not stop until I find Him.

The Virtues: Caleb is walking, but where is he going!? It seems he is aiming toward Computer, Internet’s palace.

Caleb and Internet meet face-to-face, with Self-Improvement Books waiting in the background.

Caleb: (Speaks quietly) Who are you, and what must I do to fill this hole in my heart? 

Internet: I know how you can become whole. “Remove the judgment, and you have removed the thought ‘I am hurt’: remove the thought, ‘I am hurt,’ and the hurt itself is removed” (4.7).

Caleb: So by ceasing to think that I am not whole, I can, in fact, become whole?

Internet: Precisely!

Self-Improvement Books: No! If you wish to become whole, you must work, and “...the doing of something well is better when it is more difficult” (1105a10-12). You must remove clay from other parts of your body, and use the removed clay to fill the hole. It will be difficult, but if you succeed, then you will become whole.

Caleb: I will do whatever it takes to fill this hole!

Caleb begins to remove the clay from his arms and legs and uses it to make a ball.

Self-Improvement Books: You are now ready to plug the hole in your heart. 

Caleb: No! Now, I have more holes than I started with. Besides, this ball is much too tiny to fill the hole in my heart; there is not enough clay in the world to fill it! I cannot fill this hole alone.

[INTERNET exits, DILEMMA enters].

The Virtues: Here is Dilemma, the goddess of Truth! She loves to cause anxiety with her questions. Be wary, Caleb!

Dilemma: Hello, friend. 

Caleb: Who are you? We cannot be friends; we have never spoken before!

Dilemma: No? But I have met you. I have met everyone; nobody exists who is not my friend. If you want to fill the hole in your heart, then you must find your Creator. He can heal you.

Caleb: Very well, then. I will find this Creator, and He will fill the hole in my heart. 

[Dilemma exits the stage]

The Virtues: Caleb searches so vigorously for his Creator! He first looks under a pile of wood.

Caleb: These wood planks cannot be my Creator, but I can see large footprints in the sawdust underneath them! My Creator must have been here, for these footprints are much too large to have been left by a toy, but where has he gone now?

The Virtues: Caleb follows the footprints, and they lead to a dress that has been masterfully woven out of red yarn.

Caleb: My Creator must have left this here, for no toy has the hands to grasp and weave yarn so excellently. He must be a master weaver. But where does this thread lead…?

The Virtues: Caleb follows the thread of yarn, which leads him to a notebook that lies face-up on the ground. He gazes intently at the notebook, in which are written complex math equations in beautiful writing.

Caleb: This writing is so strange! I can recognize some of the figures, but they are far beyond my understanding! They must have been left here by a very intelligent Being.

The Virtues: Where is Caleb looking? Does he notice the Architect watching him from a stool in front of His work table? 

Caleb walks toward the Architect.

Caleb: Sir, who are you? 

Architect: I am your Creator.

Caleb: How am I to know if you tell the truth!?

Architect: Remember your journey. The footprints, larger than the very life you live, are mine; The dress, more beautiful than you could imagine, is my creation, and the math, of which you understood just enough to know that you could never fully understand it, is mine. I, who made you, can fix your hole!

Caleb: Where were you this entire time!?

Architect: I have been right here from the very beginning.