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Success is as dangerous as failure.
Hope is as hollow as fear.

What does it mean that success is as dangerous as failure?
Whether you go up the ladder or down it, your position is shaky.
When you stand with your two feet on the ground,
you will always keep your balance.

What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear?
Hope and fear are both phantoms
that arise from thinking of the self.
When we don't see the self as self,
what do we have to fear?

See the world as your self.
Have faith in the way things are.
Love the world as your self;
then you can care for all things.
-- Stephen Mitchell, Chapter 13, Tao Te Ching

Jesus handed me a miniature ladder.

"Climb to the top," he said.

"I am already there," I said.

" Fall to the bottom," said Lao Tzu.

"The bottom is in the palm of my  hand," I said.

"At the top of the ladder is all your hope," said Jesus.

"At the bottom is total disaster," said Lao Tzu.

I laughed.

"Why are you laughing?" asked Lao Tzu. "Don't you want to be a success?"

"Give me the ladder," said Jesus.

He made a circle of it by melding its bottom and its top.

"There!" he said. "An eternal hamster wheel."

He threw it into the air.

It disappeared.

"What's for lunch?" asked Lao Tzu.

"There is no hope for you," I said to Lao Tzu.

"I fear not," said Jesus.