a young man walked into a bar one day, turned to the bar tender and asked, "may I ask you a question."

The bartender said, "sure, yeah, what's up?"

The young man looked at the bartender and said, "are you living?"

The bartender looked at the young man with bewilderment, "What kinda question is that, of course I'm living."

"If you are living, then are you alive?" the young man calmly asked.

"Dude," the bartender said with frustration, "I just answered that, if you ain't got no better question for me, I'm busy."

The young man paused, pierced a stare into the eyes of the bartender and asked, "why do you perceive that question is no better."

The bartender stopped, looked into the eyes of the young man. Remaining quiet, he turned his back towards the young man, picking up a glass from a rack, turned back towards the young man and asked, "would you like something to drink, on the house."

The young man spoke in a soft tone, "thank you, water."

"You don't want somethin else, its on the house,"

"Thank you, water is more than fine."

The bartender took to action preparing a glass of ice water for the young man. As he began pouring water into the glass, he turned towards the young man, "may I ask you a question?"

The young man smiled, looked into the eyes of the bartender, "Yes."

"Who are you? Why come into this bar and ask me that question?"

The young man continued looking into the eyes of the bartender, "which question would you like an answer to, who am I, or why I am asking you a question?"

"Both," the bartender replied.

The young man smiled, "I am who I am, who else could I be. And I ask you a question because I see that you desire to be free."

Pausing for a moment, the bartender contemplated the response. "Okay, if you are who you are, then who is that?"

"I am who I am, who else could I be?"

"You said that already, what does that mean?"

Straight faced, the young man replied, "what does it mean to you?"

"hahaha, dude, are you gonna answer every question I ask you with another question."

"Is not the question answering your question?"

The bartender smiled, "maybe, but that still doesn't mean you have to answer everything with a question."

"If I give you a statement in response to a question, what use is that statement to you?"

"Its an answer, and if I understand it, then I can know what you mean."

"Is not the answer you seek within you?"

"yeah well maybe. If it was inside me then why are you asking me the question in the first place?"

"If you are not aware of what you are looking at, then how can you see the answer?"

"What do you mean by looking at?"

"If you are asked a question, does not it move your mind to look within you for an answer?"

"yeah, I 'spose."

"So if you look within you, and you see the answer to the question, why does it matter if I say it in a statement or a question?"

"huh, I guess it doesn't."

The young man paused, drank a sip of water, "So, then, may I ask you a question?"

"Yes, please," the bartender replied.

"Are you living?"

The bartender laughed, smiled, took a deep breath, looked into the eyes of the young man, and said, "Yes." Turning his eyes towards the glass of water in front of the young man, he began to contemplate the depth of that statement.

The young man tapped the glass with his thumb, "If you are living, are you living presently?"

"Yes, I am."

"If you are living presently, do you exist in the memories of the past and the visions of the future?"

"Yes," he quickly replied, then pausing for a moment to contemplate the answer, he said, "well, maybe. I see an image of me in the memories and in the visions, but as I see it the mind it is only an image. Its not like me as I am here, presently."

"Do you see and or feel a difference in the image of what you see in the mind as the past and future you in relation to the present you?"

"Yeah, the present me is what is liv...ing. Hahahaha. Yo, I just got it, I'm living. You fuckin bastard, why couldn't you just say that from the beginning?"

"I do not need to tell you anything that you already know, all you must do is see it, and now that you see it, will you live it?"

The bartender paused to contemplate the question, not understanding what the young man meant, he asked, "what do you mean, live it?"

"I don't know, what do I mean?" the young man quickly spun 180 degrees on the stool, stood up, and began walking out the door.

"Wait, where ya goin?" the bartender said.

"Who, me, I'm goin where I'm goin, where else could I go?"