As you climb the ladder, you notice that the light keeps receding into the distance. Some sort of optical illusion? The ladder is much longer than it appeared. The tube you are climbing through is made of tightly packed dirt and stone. The kind it wouldnt be fun or profitable to  dig through. Whoever dug this tube was a stubborn bugger. Sometimes it seems to squeeze a little, but surely that's an illusion as well. As you climb for oh... 5 minutes, you start to wonder if maybe this tunnel with the glowing ring at the end as your goal is some sort of allegory for life. Perhaps the ring is the sort of ineffable goal that is only really there to make one get up in the morning. The ring's obviously illusory elements may be an indication of overall falsity. Below is the past and the familiar objects that you have asessed and discarded, you can return to it any time you wish, but not without effort, or you can continue to blindly strive toward some possibly unattainable and undesirable goal. There is a bit of dust in the tube, it catches in your throat and you cough loudly. You suddenly get the urge to slide fireman-style down the ladder screaming "Yippee ki aye MUTHAF#$%AS!"

RATE THIS BRANCH!