It's not the size of the nugget, it's the depth of the hole

Do you know the story of the man in California who dug a gold mine in his backyard? Maybe it's Australia? It's probably both. Anyway... For years this guy spent all of his time and money digging a hole in his backyard with just a shovel and bucket looking for gold. The hole got down a few hundred feet. You might think it would be deeper after years of digging, but remember he was doing it by himself. And the deeper he got, the longer it would take him to remove a single bucket of dirt. Imagine having to climb down a rickety set of ladders into a deep dark hole. Then when you got to the bottom, you can take only one or two scoops of dirt before you had to climb back out of the hole with one hand (???). And when you get to the top, you dump the bucket and start back down the rickety ladder... Rinse and repeat. Fooooooor years!!!!

This man didn't spend time with his two daughters. His wife eventually left him. His friends gave up on him. He quit all of his other hobbies (Rumor was that he was a pretty good bowler). All for the sole purpose of digging up the gold he knew was in his backyard. He spent hours a day digging that hole.

He never found the gold he thought was down there. Eventually his daughters fearing for his sanity, had him committed to prevent him from digging any deeper and endangering himself. The city found out about the illegal goldmine and had it filled in. The thought of his precious gold mine - or perhaps it was all the work he had put in to it - being lost, crushed his spirits. He slipped into a deep depression and never recovered.

You could say that he wasn't mentally sound before he started digging, or that he became mentally unsound during all those years of digging, but I think he lost his mind when it finally occurred to him what he had done with his life. I think he discovered that it was all over and when he evaluated what his life amounted to, he cracked. He had dedicated his life to digging a huge hole and he was figuratively trapped at the bottom of it. He was willing to give up everything that was real in his life in the hope that he would find something better at the bottom of that hole. He lost everything. That's what crushed him.

What did he think he was going to find down there? What would he have done if he found the gold? Besides the obvious question of how to get the gold OUT of that deep hole, I bet he never thought about what to use it for. His family was gone, so were his friends and everything that was important to him. The only conceivable choice he had would be to put the money back into digging the hole. I feel bad that he wouldn't have anyone to share the achievement with. As he proudly stood there in his backyard with his chunk of gold, smiling and filled with joy, no one would be there to celebrate the victory with him.

I wonder what he fantasized about during all those years of digging? Without anything but the hole to think about, what did he do to pass the long hours of digging and climbing? I don't think he would be willing to think about his wife, or his daughters, or his former friends - that would only hamper his efforts. I bet he tried to imagine how justified he would feel in the mind's of all those people when he presented that promised nugget.

I wonder what made him think that his backyard would have gold in it? That seems like an odd notion to just cross someone's mind. Was he putting in a garden and dug up a flake or two of shiny gold? As I look into the patch of grass in front of my apartment, I don't see gold... I see a lot of unscooped dog shit.


I would hate to dig so deep that I couldn't get myself out. Down in a deep hole holding a solid piece of gold and no way to save myself. I don't know this rest of the story and I can't verify this information to make sure it's accurate, and actually, I don't care. It's an allegorical tale.