Once I heard a good explanation of the "wheel of fortune" metaphor, it became one of my favorites. At the top of the wheel is a wealthy, powerful man--a king of men. At the bottom is a destitute peasant. On one side a man is on the way up, but on the other side a man is going town. The wheel of fortune never stops spinning. You're always on your way up, or on your way down--not only physically, but emotionally as well. It's a miserable process going up, and it's a miserable process going down. The guy at the top is miserable because he knows success is fleeting. The guy at the bottom is miserable because... well, he's at the bottom of life. But the wheel keeps spinning and spinning. ("Changes aren't permanant, but change is.")
The only escape from all the spinning, all the striving and struggling, all the misery, is at the hub of the wheel. Let the world spin around you, and remain unmoved.
Getting to the hub is, of course, the tricky part!
Black Elk said that to his people (the Oglala Sioux), the center of the universe is located at Harney Peak, South Dakota. But, he said, the center of the universe is really carried inside you wherever you go. That is, sacred places are not physical locations; they're conditions.
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