The Star And The Emperor's Shadow

Once upon a time, in a land very far from here, there lived the Star.The Star radiated with her own inner beauty and had the gifts of pleasure in nature, reasoned intuition and of shining hope. Those who experienced difficulties or were depressed or unwell traveled from far and wide to ask the Star for healing. There was something about her twinkling light that drew them out of themselves and up into a higher plane, because as we all know, with our eyes heavenward, we no longer feel the distress of earthly woes.

One day, while filling her shiny silver pitcher with water at the tranquil pond of hope, a small band of the Emperor's Knights happened to come upon her while riding their horses back from battle and were struck by her ethereal and somewhat other-worldly presence. All the harshness and density of their everyday lives seemed to slip away and they began to feel uplifted and blessed to be in her company. One Knight, so taken by her radiance, dismounted his big black horse and approached the Star.

"What are you doing maiden?" he asked and the Star answered simply with the beautiful clear voice of a soprano "I am filling my pitcher from which I renew joy and hope to my garden." The Knight's grief and despair that had overwhelmed him from the many battles he seen, instantly vanished and a sense of hope, enlightenment and great happiness filled him. He became filled with purpose and that knew he must tell the Emperor of the inspiration and enlightenment that he had found when hearing the maiden speak.

Now the Emperor who was short and pudgy, hard and aggressive and prone to sudden fits of irrational rage, had become very disenchanted with life after claiming the throne from his controlling and very rigid father (who recently had met with a sudden and untimely end during a jousting exhibition in which he arrogantly bragged of his military prowess.) The Emperor had long ago given up his sense of wonder and adventure and had become entrenched in stubbornness and took great pleasure in choosing domination over  balanced authority when dealing with his subjects.

When hearing his Knight's tale, a plan began to take shape in the shadow recesses of the Emperor's brain and he went to bed that night plotting of just how he might possibly squelch these silly, nonsensical, fluffy bunny qualities that his Knight had claimed that the Star possessed. After all, he couldn't let this maiden influence his subjects in such a manor, giving them hope and confidence in themselves, challenging his heavy handed control. "There must be a way to stop it...but how?" he grumbled.

(part two next Thursday)

"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value."-Albert Einstein