Robert Fulghum visited an institute on Crete devoted to reconciling Germans and Cretans.
At the end of a lecture he asked the director, Alexandros Papaderos, what the meaning of life was. Laughter followed, and people stirred to go. Papaderos looked at him for a long time, asking with his eyes if he was serious and saw that he was.
"I will answer your question." Taking his wallet from his hip pocket, he fished out a small round mirror, the size of a quarter.
Then he said, "I was a small child during the war. One day, on the road, I found the broken pieces of a mirror. I kept the largest piece. This one. I began to play with it and became fascinated that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine - deep holes, crevices, dark closets.
"I kept the little mirror, and as I became a man, I grew to understand that this was not just a child's game but a metaphor for what I might do with my life. I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design I do not know.
"With what I have, I can reflect light - truth, understanding , knowledge - into the black places in the hearts of men. I can change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise.
This is what I do."
(From What Love Is All About)
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