A TROUBLESOME VISITOR

A Troublesome Visitor

A storm is coming. It is night. Two men. A dark ikon.

One of the men is Artyom, a forester. He talks about the evil of man. How some come to his hut and demand bread and rob him. All his thoughts are about how man is wicked.

The other man is a hunter. He speaks the truth (and that is always troublesome). Casually pointing out how Artyom is not feeding his cat properly.

More than speaking the truth -- he puts his money where his mouth is. When there is a scream coming from the forest for help -- Artyom wants to bolt the door and put off the light.

The hunter says they have to go and try to help -- Artyom thinks he's crazy and won't hear of it.

The hunter lashes in to him and tells him it's his duty to help. Artyom refuses to go out. The hunter leaves with his dog and Artyom bolts the door.

The hunter comes back a short time later and tells him it was a peasant woman who had lost her way -- but the hunter is troubled. Artyom passes himself of as a man of God -- railing against evil -- while the hunter sees that the forester is a mean, selfish hypocrite. The hunter wants to get back at Artyom and tries to rob him. But when he sees how pathetic Artyom is -- how scared -- how miserable -- he just wants to get out of there. And he does.

Hypocrites are all around us. Shouting out against the evils of the world -- when all they have to do is look in the mirror. Take one recent example -- Newt Gingrich -- who was running for president. In his campaign Gingrich had been lambasting Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and blaming these government-sponsored mortgage companies for the problems affecting housing. Until we discovered that good ole Newt profited nearly two million dollars by acting as a consultant for these very same companies.

Hypocrisy is nothing new and will always be around. I suppose as Chekhov points out in this story -- the best solution is calling out the hypocrite and then staying as far away from them as possible.