A giant who can't stand.

Under a dark oak tree lays a giant, with the largest hands in the world. People come from all over to visit him and gaze upon how interesting he is. Most other giants are not as colorful as he is, and his hands were so big, he could hold an entire forest on his palm, he could block out the sun to an entire city, he could reach up and grab the top of a mountain if he so pleased.

For a long time he liked being special, Dukes and Kings would travel far and wide just to marvel at the giant who never left his tree. One of these days, a King had asked our gargantuan friend to accompany him back to his castle. And as the giant began to stand, he realized his hands were too heavy. He could drag his hands behind him, sure, but that would destroy everything behind him in his path. It never occurred to him that he couldn’t leave the tree, he always considered it a choice he made, something that he never felt like doing.
But this shocking realization changed his perspective. He did not know if he truly wanted what he wanted, or if he rationalized a poor situation with the illusion of choice.

This chain of events never changed his popularity though, he still had visitors daily who had previously never considered anything could be as big as his hands. The giant contemplated this further, he liked being the center of attention, but why? The people he met were never friends he made, they just came to stare at him and leave. ‘But that can’t be the only reason.’, the giant thought, ‘surely I have other aspects that people visit me for.’. So as his curiosity grew, so did his ears. Every conversation someone had would be one that he heard, and he became a great listener.

"This was a fun break, I’m happy to get out of the house for a while!", an elderly man said.
"Huh, if I knew all I had to do to get my kids to be quiet for a second was to let them see this giant, I’d be here every night!", a tired mother said
"Getting some time away from all our struggles was kind of nice for a change", a beggar said
"You know, I should get out more often.", a nobleman said.

These and many more are sentiments and conversations our honed-eared companion would hear daily. While on the surface, these seemed positive, the moment he’d think about their inverse quality, the more he questioned why people continued living at all. The man who was happy to get out of the house for a while must’ve had a distaste for his living situation. The woman who was pleased that her kids were finally quiet, made her fantasize about a life where she would have constant peace. The beggar who was pleased to take his mind off of his struggle still struggles at the end of the day. And the noble who wanted to go out more often lamented his busy work life.

The giant was confused, did these people not know how much they went through? How much they torture themselves just by existing? Kings and beggars, men and women all had issues that leaving helped with. But they still always returned to the way their life was, it’s not like they could stay there forever.

So the giant had come to this conclusion. Everyone shared the same thought that a break was something they needed, they needed a moment to be away from whatever plagued them. However, this never solved their ailment, it only made it less noticeable. ‘Like dragging my hands behind me, and not looking back’ the giant thought. ‘They all seem to be ignoring their problems, and through their ignorance, they become happier. So if the temporary solution is a temporary absence, then the permanent solution is permanent absence!’. He did it! He figured out how to solve unhappiness! It didn’t matter who you were, rich or poor, you had issues that were sedated by leaving. So if you just left forever, then all the problems you face are gone forever too.

So he preached to the masses that came to him, but only got weird looks from a concerned crowd. But why? He figured out the answer. He found the solution to end their unhappiness, why were they so hesitant to listen?

As night approached, and his smaller than usual crowd dispersed, there was one person who stuck through the night. Someone who wanted to talk with our lonesome acquaintance.

She spoke softly, almost at a whisper, but this unphased the listening giant. She said one simple sentence, “That can’t be the only way.”. So the giant thought some more as she fell asleep under the same tree he did.

Unable to come up with another conclusion, he asks this girl why she rejects the notion that leaving forever wasn’t a good solution. To this, she says, “Well I don’t want to stop living life, imagine when everything pays off, and I can finally exist in a world that I’m happy in.”. Confused, the giant asks, “How could you ever be happy? Money doesn’t fix it, plenty of rich people complain too. Power doesn’t fix it, Kings come here to ease the stress of being a leader. Time doesn’t fix it, many of the elderly realize that even if they are happy, they won’t enjoy it for long, which just brings more dread. And even if you were finally happy, how could you bring yourself to be so, when everyone else around you suffers?”.

The girl was taken aback, clearly she hadn’t thought about it before. Each road led nowhere. The same illness of stress would still exist no matter her situation. Yet she persisted on there being another way, with the phrase ‘There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, if you can’t see it yet then you have to keep walking.’.

Oh had the giant heard enough of that phrase, he quickly snapped at her, “Any light you see at the end of your tunnel does not exist, you’ve only thrown a torch in the darkness and pretended that it was the way out. But what happens when you reach the light and realize that the only reason you kept going was that you had to trick yourself that what you were doing was the right course of action? What happens then? The world has done nothing to prove that everything will work out in the end, so why are you so incessant that it will?”.

The girl stopped for a second and took a moment to think, and at this moment the giant spoke once more. “You’ve subconsciously proved my point, you’re pressed with a stressful situation and you don’t know what to do or say, so you’ve taken a moment to escape from it all and return to a happy place where you don’t have to worry anymore! You run away from your unending problems because you can’t face them without admitting that doing so is a waste of effort, and to admit that is to also admit that life isn’t worth living, but you’re too vain to do that as well.

Being happy is impossible without deluding yourself as to not recognize the true horror of this world, the horror being the constant hoard of misery that follows your every footstep. It’s not that you fail to recognize it, but more that you refuse to do so, because you don’t want to take the first and only step to freedom. You don’t have the courage, and now you lie to yourself to feel better about your poor situation. Go ahead and continue suffering while the solution is right under your nose, just know that I’m not going to live the lie as you do.”

The girl left with tears streaming down her face. Later that week he heard church bells on a day that wasn’t Sunday. He asked one of his visitors what the bells were for, and the visitor answered. “From what I’ve heard, some poor girl had enough of it and offed herself. It’s a true shame that some people are driven so far down that they think that’s the only answer.”.

The man expected the giant to at least share the same sentiment, but our degenerate was delighted to hear the news. She was finally free from the world’s twisted torment. But everyone around him seemed to be displeased with her actions, and even more with his reaction. So he preaches the same message, calling people out on their delusions of happiness, and how they created hope because they would rather be foolish than admit that their life, full of stress and hardships, was unlivable. But they refused to listen.

They called him hopeless, sad, a lunatic. But in his eyes, he was a revolutionary thinker. Ahead of his time. Humble enough to realize his life meant nothing, and pragmatic enough to realize that all he felt was sadness, something the people around him couldn’t do.

So he felt bitter hate, and resentment to those who refused to admit they were just as sad as he was, if not sadder.

However, he couldn’t keep telling people this. They would normally say something rude and hurt the giant’s feelings. So he eventually decided to end it too, but his hands were too heavy to do anything with them, and giants live for hundreds of years. So he was stuck, having to endure listening to the pain of others, knowing they could do something about it, while also knowing they would refuse the option. He cried every night, envying the soft-spoken girl and counting down the days ‘til he stopped breathing.