a modern fairy tale
Once upon a time, in a kingdom not unlike ours
there was a common serving boy with dreams of knighthood. In those days, you
had to be a knights son to be trained as a knight. Sometimes if a dragon was
slain or a particularly clever irrigation system was invented they would make an
exception. But you had to be extraordinarily lucky since dragons were few and
far between and this was before American Idol had been
invented.
One day, on the advice of his
wizard, the king made a new decree. All through the land it was
proclaimed;
"Any person who can complete
a marathon will be granted a wish from the king. This offer is good as long as
the kingdom stands and the offer is open to
all."
This was exciting news. The whole
country was abuzz. Everyone wanted a wish from the king. Everyone made plans
to run the marathon.
The marathons were
to be held once a year. The boy signed up for the first one. Surprisingly
there were few names on the list.
"I'll
do the next one" said a friend, "I'm pretty busy right now".
"I'm not sure if I want the king to make
me a knight or a minstrel, so I'm going to wait till I figure out which I should
be" said another.
"My boyfriend wants me
to wait till he can run it too said a pretty
lass."
And so on the first marathon only
half the town showed up. When the bell was rung, they started running the 26
miles they had to complete. (this was before the metric system). After about 2
miles, the first person gave up. At about 5 miles the boy was too exhausted to
go on. He crawled for awhile till he passed out. No one from their town
finished the marathon.
The next day,
people were talking again, about how the king had set an impossible task. It
was obvious that as many people could run marathons as could slay dragons. The
general populace went back to living the way they did
before.
A year later though, a skinny
tailor won it. And the year after that a couple other people did. They all had
their wishes granted. Still the people did not hope because many had tried and
most had failed. They were not genetically predisposed to running marathons.
They were a short and stocky people.
One
day a knight came to town to talk about how he won the marathon.
The town hall was full because people
always have dreams. The knight shared his
secret:
"Almost no one can run a marathon
at first try." he said and everyone nodded their heads at this truth. "No
matter how hard you try." And the boy knew this was true because he had tried
with all his heart but that had only taken him to mile 5. "but I know a secret
that will help you pass the marathon" said the knight and everyone leaned
forward.
"when I ran my first marathon,
after 2 miles it became impossible and I quit. I went home defeated. But the
next day I woke up mad because I am not a quitter and so I went back to where
the marathon was held and though no one was there, I ran it again. And this
time it was even harder because I had blisters, but I ran it anyways and at 2
miles it became impossible again and I went home defeated. Because I am
stubborn, I came back the next day and ran it again. I did this all week purely
because my nickname is stubborn joey. After a week though, I found that I could
run 3 miles. So I was a little encouraged. I resolved to complete the marathon
for my own pride and every day I ran and every week I found I ran a little
farther. When the next year's marathon came around, I failed yet again, but
this time I got to 18 miles before I had to quit. I ran every day until the
next marathon and suddenly and easily I won the next marathon. As you can see,
the king granted me my wish, I am a
knight".
The people were
angry.
"We want a proper secret!" they
yelled. No one wanted to run everyday for 2 years.
"but don't you see?" the knight told
everyone still listening "you can have your dream, you can have anything you
want if you just dedicate some time to it every day. Even a little daily effort
will get you closer to your dream. You just have to learn to push yourself a
little farther every day. It's not that hard once you get used to it"... but by
that time the only person who was listening was the
boy.
So the boy resolved to train for the
marathon. He ran a mile every day for a couple days... then things got busy and
he told himself he would run 4 miles on the weekend when he had more time, but
he ended up going to the beach with his friends. He always intended to start
running again, maybe tomorrow or for sure by next week. He never gave up on
his dream, he bought some very nice running shoes and did a lot of research
about running. He did a lot of planning and made a lot of resolutions. But he
rarely actually went running. He thought of himself as a runner and was
bitterly critical of other people who trained and he was especially bitter about
the people who won marathons. He drank a lot of ale and grew heavier but he
kept telling himself that one day he would start training again, he would run
the marathon.
Finally years later, he
found the knight who gave the speech and he asked him how the king granted his
wish.. did he rub a lamp and a genie came out? Did he wave a magic wand? The
knight explained that the king sent him to see the wizard who told him
this:
"You have already learned the
secret to getting what you wish in life. Almost any change you desire can be
brought about by daily practice. While your goals may seem impossible at first,
with enough faithful training you can achieve them. Now go and spread this
knowledge."
And the boy who was now a
man became angry and hit the knight with a rock because he really didn't want to
hear that the power to change his own life was in his own hands.
A great sadness fell over the knight
because no one wanted to hear the fantastic truth and also he had just been hit
with a rock.
and while the knight went on
to live happily ever after, very few other people did.
Posted: Wed - June 24, 2009 at 11:06 AM
