Christmas Tale
Illustration★★★★Once there lived a king who had power over all nations and peoples. His courts were of richest splendor; his tables were heavy with finest food. Music and laughter and gaiety floated from his castle. Clouds wrapped it in ethereal majesty.
Peasants —in their valley of violence and hunger—stopped and looked at the castle for a long while, wishing they might know the king. But none were able to reach it.
In the cold of winter, the king’s tailor entered the royal cham- bers with the latest additions to the king’s wardrobe. He had selected the finest materials and woven them into the most beautiful garments that eyes had ever seen. But the king was not pleased with what he saw, and he ordered his tailor out.
“I’ll make my own clothes,” he said. The door to the throne room was shut and locked. Weeks passed. The royal court waited with keen anticipation to see what the king would make for himself.
They knew they were bound to be blinded by the glory of it. Finally the awaited day arrived.
The door opened and the king appeared. Christmas 57 Everyone, especially the tailor, gasped in surprise. His Majesty was dressed in the simplest, cheapest, most unk- ingly garments imaginable. He had the choice of the world’s finest materials, but he had chosen to wear the clothes of a beggar.
He spoke quietly to them all: “I am going into the valley!”
— Daves
The point
An Eastern parable where four brothers planned a feast, each contributing wine equally, but each brought water thinking their water wouldn't be noticed—a tale of communal failure through individual evasion of responsibility.