The Light in the Absurd

In a dusty town on the edge of the Algerian Sahara, lived Karim, a quiet schoolteacher known for his strange, dry humor and an old bicycle he never replaced. His students often found him odd. He'd tell them, "Life is like my cycle chain — it breaks down, but somehow it gets you there."

After school hours, Karim would sit by a rocky plateau outside town, reading absurd plays and scribbling strange philosophical notes on scraps of paper. One line was always visible on his blackboard: “Embrace the absurd.”

One day, tragedy struck the town — a sandstorm swept through, taking lives and homes. At the school, grief hung heavy. While others despaired, Karim gathered the remaining children and led them to the ruined courtyard. There, he began reenacting scenes from old plays — tragic, funny, and strange.

The children laughed and cried, often both at once.

“Why are we doing this?” a girl asked, wiping her eyes.

Karim replied, “Because life doesn’t need meaning to be lived. It just needs presence. Laughter. Kindness. And maybe a bit of madness.”

In time, Karim became a quiet legend in his town — not for fixing meaning, but for helping others live without needing one. His motto, once ridiculed, was etched at the school gate:

“Life is meaningless — and that’s what makes it worth dancing through.”

Moral:

When we stop chasing meaning, we start noticing life.

Inspiration:

"Life is meaningless, but worth living, provided you recognize it's meaningless." — Albert Camus