Locked in a Cage

I was having coffee with a good friend a few weeks ago, someone I really look up to as a mentor in my life.  I was complaining to him about life, work, etc.  He started telling me this story, it was a variation on an old fairy tale.  The story is basically about this boy who finds this wild man locked in a cage and has to find the key to let him out.  The boy goes on this journey to free the wild man, and in the end, the wild man in the cage is actually him.  He said that reminded him of most men in the world, and specifically it reminded him of me.  It sounded so true and I really started to think about all the cages that I feel locked in.   What I’m wrestling with now is that, although I’m starting to see these cages,  the keys are yet to be found.

The fact is that I believe the wild man is there within all men.  The problem is that  in so many of us he’s locked up and wants out.  So he usually either starts rattling the cage (angry men) or tries to anesthetize himself (passive men, checked out).  I realize that I definitely don’t want to live like that, but I see it within me – whenever I freak out at the guy that cut me off or want to drive my head through a wall at work.  There’s something within me that’s trapped.

For me the biggest part of the story is that the little boy is the one that has to go on the journey to find the key to unlock the cage.  That’s critical, that seems to hit so close to home for me.  There’s something within me that feels like a scared little boy who has been thrown out in the midst of a battle, alone.  So how does the boy find the key?  And where does he find it?  Those are the tough questions that, unfortunately, I don’t have the answers to right now.