' He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.' Isiah 53:3 Lying languidly on his bed, Harry Hagen, weathered by the weight of years, gazed pensively out of the window, his weary eyes fixed upon the impenetrable depths of the darkest woods. Through the veil of shadows, a haunting vision unfolded—a spectral figure resembling his father, strolling into the depths of the wilderness hand in hand with his seven-year-old son, the glint of an axe catching the feeble rays of light. In the quiet recesses of his contemplation, a poignant realization dawned on Harry. "Life can possess a profound simplicity," he mused, envisioning the idyllic tableau before him. In that ephemeral moment, what he yearned for was a narrative of exquisite beauty and unassuming normalcy, a respite from the complexities that had woven themselves into the fabric of his ...