|
Server : Apache/2.4.62 System : FreeBSD fbsdweb2.web.rcn.net 14.1-RELEASE FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE releng/14.1-n267679-10e31f0946d8 GENERIC amd64 User : www ( 80) PHP Version : 8.3.8 Disable Function : NONE Directory : /domains/tmandel/ |
Upload File : |
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Mozilla/4.03 (Macintosh; I; PPC) [Netscape]">
<META NAME="Author" CONTENT="Tommy Mandel">
<META NAME="KeyWords" CONTENT="Orient, Parable, Spirit">
<META NAME="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<TITLE>A Parable</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY TEXT="#FFE394" BGCOLOR="#971C20" LINK="#FF5111" VLINK="#FF0A47" ALINK="#FFE640">
<script type='text/javascript' src='http://www.midijs.net/lib/midi.js'></script>
<a href="#" onClick="MIDIjs.play('webber.mid');">click for soundtrack</a>
<CENTER>
<H1>
<EMBED src="webber.mid" width="0" height="0" autostart="true" loop="true"><B><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT SIZE=+4><FONT COLOR="#FFDD6E"><U>A
Parable </U>-<U> </U></FONT><U><FONT COLOR="#FFA628">The Three Words</FONT></U></FONT></FONT></B></H1></CENTER>
<FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>In the ancient
land of Sumatra, there once lived a young king, with the clear eye of the
Eagle and the true heart of the Lion. He ruled his vast kingdom wisely
and it was said that his voice could charm a thunderstorm into a rainbow,
his songs could pierce the heart of a newly wedded hummingbird, and steal
her from her betrothed.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>But the king
could not find a mate. As he matured, he felt something was missing from
his life. Eventually, even sleep deserted him: he would toss and turn for
hours, wondering what he lacked, whilst time slipped away from what he
believed to be his sadly limited time here on earth.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>So he decided
to visit the <U>Lord of the Sun</U>. It took him 3 days to get to the Palace
of the Sun, in Sun City, and it was the dustiest, windiest, speediest chariot
journey he had ever undertaken. Looking down behind him from the throne
of the Lord of the Sun, he could see his whole kingdom, and really it looked
very very small.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>"<B>What it
is, bro,</B>" the Lord of the Sun rasped out of his big chocolate colored
lips.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>"Oh Sun, you
know who I am. I have everything I could want, and still something is missing.
Please tell me what it is."</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>"<B>Mmmmm,
the Usual Complaint</B>," the Black Sun chuckled, shaking mountains and
nearly splitting the sky. "<B>Here...take this Word. It will help you to
get by</B>."</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT SIZE=+3><FONT COLOR="#FFED21">And, handing
our young king a Word, shimmering and ice blue, the Lord of the Sun disappeared,
and the young king found himself back in his high ceilinged chambers, the
pulsating blue </FONT><FONT COLOR="#54FFFA">Word</FONT><FONT COLOR="#FFED21">
cool and comforting in his hands. He was happy.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3> </FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>. . . Now
the tiniest crowsfeet were visible at the corners of the king's eyes, and
when he walked, his subjects noticed that the spring was gone from his
step. Twelve years had passed since he had received the Word of the Lord
of the Sun, and they had been good years. People had food. They had a little
money. And they had roofs over their heads, for the most part; (and the
nights were cool and breezy anyway if you had to sleep out under a tree.)</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT SIZE=+3><FONT COLOR="#FFED21">The king had
found a nude beach five hours horseback ride to the north, shaded by the
tallest cedars, where the most beautiful women he had ever seen bathed
all day long, stretching their moist golden bodies shamelessly on its shores,
and drawing pictures of dragons in the wet sand with their long toes. He
had to own it, but it belonged to a great lesbian warrior, kinda like Xena.
He dared not make war with her for he feared he would be laughed at, and
try as he would, he couldn't seduce this sister of Isis either. The nights
that he sang under her window, creating </FONT><FONT COLOR="#57FF57">music</FONT><FONT COLOR="#FFED21">
never before or since heard under the sky, to win her heart, caused local
angels to swoon and fall from the heavens, but did not move this ladylover.
Finally, he stopped his gentle crooning. He realized that all he could
offer her was the cool blue shimmering Word given him by the Lord of the
Sun. This was his most valuable possession, and now he was ready to part
with it.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>As he handed
it to the sweetlipped queen, her maidens, even as they dined, scurrying
about her legs, he felt some of the color leave the sky, and with a sigh,
he rose to bathe on his newd beach. He was pretty happy.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3> </FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>. . . Another
eighteen years passed, and now his golden hair had the faintest touch of
silver mixed in with it. He smiled less, and everyone in his kingdom still
said he was a great and noble king. But he missed his blue Word. So he
decided to visit the <U>Princess of the Moon</U>; she might have something
for him if he could only persuade her to part with it.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT SIZE=+3><FONT COLOR="#FFED21">This trip
took seven days and seven nights of sailing the turbulent blue green waves
at the edge of sea and sky, and when he arrived he was parched. He was
given clear </FONT><FONT COLOR="#40A9FF">blue</FONT><FONT COLOR="#FFED21">
water by seven mermaids of the moon, and he slept instantly. When he awoke,
he was lying in the softest bed he had even been in. Aqua fronds fanned
him, and he could faintly hear the tinkle of ocean bells, or was it the
far away singing of a young girls' choir?</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>"<B>How do
you feel, my beautiful visitor ?</B>" came the melodious voice of the Princess
of the Moon. She floated towards him, concern shading her flawless oval
face. "<B>Whatever can I do for you, now that you have made such a perilous
journey to be with me?</B>"</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>"I need something
to go on," he began..."some word, or..."</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT SIZE=+3><FONT COLOR="#FFED21">He didn't
need to finish. Smiling sadly at him, the Princess of the Moon withdrew
a sparkling silver </FONT><FONT COLOR="#FFCFEE">Word</FONT><FONT COLOR="#FFED21">
from her breast; it floated across to our hero and nested itself between
his arms. He sighed contentedly, and immediately plummeted again into the
deep sleep from which he had just awoken.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>The next thing
he knew, he was back in his royal chambers, and feeling the sparkling silver
Word safe within his grasp, he relaxed, knowing that for now at least,
he hadn't a care in the world that was too big for him to conquer.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3> </FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>. . . Now
our king walks a little slower. His hair is but a wispy aura of his former
mane, but still people stop to gaze at him, admiring his stateliness, his
wisdom, and....his pain? Everyone in the kingdom now feels his unhappiness
; it pervades their ruler and his domain wherever he goes. He has everything,
but still....</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>And that is
how it came to pass that, passing an orphanage, he saw and fell deeply
in love with the most adorable and vulnerable little child. She was playing
alone with a ball, bouncing it against a broken wall. As it hit the cracks,
pebbles and cinders would fall to the ground in front of it. She would
painstakingly pick up the dust and every pebble, and, putting the debris
in a cup she had fashioned out of a discarded piece of a soldier's helmet,
she pretended to feed "her baby", a doll which was little more than a tree
branch that forked for legs, and swelled, giving the impression of an upturned
little head.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT SIZE=+3><FONT COLOR="#FFED21">"Here, baby,
drink," she said, a </FONT><FONT COLOR="#FF5E79">mother</FONT><FONT COLOR="#FFED21">
for all of her five years. At that instant, the king's heart was taken.
He couldn't imagine a more perfect soul. He secretly stole back to watch
her play each day, again and again tricking his mind into daydreams that
she was his child, and that finally he would have a center to his life.
But making discrete inquiry, he found that she had an incurable disease
and only a short time left to live.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>In such sorrow
that even he had never felt before, he walked the shores of his nude beach
alone in the moonlight. All of a sudden, he saw the Princess of the Moon
descending at him on a reflected beam from the horizon, across the waters,
to the shore.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>"Cast the
silver Word into the sea, and your child will yet live and breathe! "he
heard her unmistakeable voice ring over the waves. Without a second thought,
he flung his second Word into the depths, and it seemed the sea grew calm,
and the world a little safer. And his child grew healthy.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3> </FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>. . . She
was now HIS child, and he saw to it that she lacked nothing. It was almost
embarassing, the riches heaped upon that little ex-0rphan. And it began
to spoil her, so that by her sixteenth birthday, she was hanging out with
all the wrong kids, and, yes getting into trouble.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>When she was
caught shoplifting at the Bazaar, she was brought before him. She glared
back, the golden earings in her eyebrows flashing in defiance. Her tattoos
shouted at him "Buck Authority!" "I Belong to Darkness, Wanna Do Somethin'
Bout It?" and "Daddy's Little Devil" He was beside himself.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>As in other
difficult times, he put his things together and embarked on a long and
tortuous journey, this time to beg the <U>Duke of the Stars</U> for a word
of wisdom. After travelling a month (for he was far slower now than in
his youth,) he reached the throne of the Duke of the Stars. It was halfway
between Swingo's and a Planetarium, with exotic lighting and very 60's.
It was littered with cast-off stellar beings that were careening their
way from white-hot to red-dwarf status. Television screens were everywhere,
screening the latest gossip about everyone who had ever been anybody. But
of course, the sound was turned down.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT SIZE=+3><FONT COLOR="#FFED21">The Duke of
the Stars didn't even wait for our aged king to begin to speak. Instantly
producing a blazing red </FONT><FONT COLOR="#FF2BE3">Word</FONT><FONT COLOR="#FFED21">
of power, he flicked it in an arc, orbiting thrice around them, and then
our king felt a burning bulge in his pocket where it had landed. Before
he could even thank the Duke of the Stars, he found himself once again
staring into his step-daughter's defiant eyes. Yet now, he felt infinite
patience. He smiled at her lovingly, and something in his protective gaze
seemed to tame the animal inside of her. An iron wall around her heart
slowly melted. Gradually her rage subsided, and within a year, she was
happily married to a king named David, who ruled a small oil-free country
on the East Coast of the Mediterranean Sea. A musician. Her dowry was the
red Word that had so compasssionately cooled the raging fires within her
soul.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3> </FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>. . . Finally,
it was time for the king that we met as a young man of melifluous voice,
to pass away from this intense and troubling world. One morning, he just
didn't wake up; (he was dead, you see.) Instead, he dreamed that he was
standing at the door of a gigantic discotheque. The sweetest and funkiest
music was playing inside. There was a separate door marked, "For Incredible
Ladies Only," and an endless stream of miracles passed into the club through
this WonderPortal. Our king had but one final desire: to enter the club,
have a Jack Daniels and Coke, and dance with the prettiest girl in the
NightClub.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>Unfortunately,
the bouncer at the main door was the size of Mount Horeb, (very tall.)
"I'm sorry, only those with the proper credentials may enter," he grunted,
his deep monotone accenting his simian surliness.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>"<B>But I
am a king...er...I was a king, and a good one.</B>..." the dreaming phantasm
that was our hero protested to the hairy roundshouldered chimp. "<B>I possessed
three magic Words in my long lifetime, you must believe me! Please let
me in...</B>"</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>"Sorry, but
you'll need a passWord. Surely you have a Word ? Many far less distinguished
visitors to our club have a Word with which to enter...?</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>"<B>But I've
given my Words away!</B>" the king spoke shrilly, alarm rising in his voice
and causing eyebrows behind him in the line to rise askance.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>"Ah, but you
must KEEP YOUR WORD. Or else nobody will believe you," explained the bouncer.
"You don't expect me to believe you if you haven't kept your word, do ya?"</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>And so the
king sat down on a step near the entrance of the NightClub, his chin in
his hands, his elbows on his knees. And dreamt of his life.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3> </FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3> </FONT></FONT></FONT>
<BR><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3> </FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FF2133"><FONT SIZE=+3>**Epilogue**</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3> </FONT></FONT></FONT>
<BR>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>Finally, the
dead king arose and began his long walk. Before he had taken twenty steps,
he felt a gigantic explosion behind him. He turned to see the discotheque
in shambles, the victim of some terrifying explosion.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>"Boy, I'm
quite lucky to not have been inside," he thought to himself. And he almost
tripped over three items that suddenly appeared on the road in front of
his tired feet. They must have been thrown in his path by the explosion.
As he gazed down at them, all his life flashed before his eyes, like meteors
across the cold dark winter's skies: for they were his three Words, the
Words given him by the <B>King of the Sun,</B> the <B>Princess of the Moon</B>,
and the <B>Duke of the Stars</B>. And now that they lay together, glowing
and pulsating, he finally understood their meaning, for they spelled out
his destiny:</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3> </FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><B><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3><A HREF="http://www.tommymandel.com">KEEP
YOUR WORD</A></FONT></FONT></FONT></B>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3> </FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3> </FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3> </FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>*The End*</FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3> </FONT></FONT></FONT>
<CENTER><FONT FACE="Rickshaw"><FONT COLOR="#FFED21"><FONT SIZE=+3>The moral
of the story is, You must KEEP YOUR WORD. Or else no one will believe you
when you really need them to.</FONT></FONT></FONT></CENTER>
<BR>
</BODY>
</HTML>