Thoughts.com Blogs

View Blog

Fable.

A long time ago and far away at the edge of the world, there lived...
"A King!" shouts one.
"An Evil Witch!" shouts out another.
No, dear children, it was neither a rich King nor an Evil Witch. It was a very special tree. This tree was special for two reasons.
For one, it was extremely beautiful. It had the tallest limbs stretching high into the sky where the birds fly; much higher than you or I can reach. Its limbs were covered in broad, beautiful green leaves. The leaves provided shelter for little birds to build their nests and for other little creatures to rest and be protected. This tree's truck was so big and strong that we could all join hands and make a ring and still not reach all the way around it. It was the kind of tree that you would like to sit under on a very, very hot day because it would give you it's cooling shade. It's roots ran deep into the ground so that it could drink the water and, there, the little wiggly things of the earth could make their homes too. It was a very beautiful tree, indeed.
But there was another reason why this tree was so special; it was the tree of Knowledge. It had stood at the edge of the world since the beginning of time and knew all the things of world. Its limbs, stretching high into the air, could feel the vibrations of life all over the world. The tree would feel the pulse of life and know all the things that were happening and everything that any creature thought or felt. Because of this very special tree, all the creatures knew how to act and they never forgot the right things to do.
One day, as the tree stood at the edge of the world and breathed in the clean air and drank the clean water from the land, it felt a strange vibration in the ground. The tree waved its limbs in the air and tried to understand this strange vibration. The vibration grew stronger and stronger. The tree waved its limbs and fluttered its broad, green leaves but still it could not understand.
Suddenly people appeared in great big machines with giant black tires and the machines belched awful black smoke into the air. Men got out of the machines with saws and they saw the tree at the edge of the world. They cut down the tree with their big noisey saws so they could have pasture to raise cheap beef and eat more hamburgers. The people felt a great weariness creep over their minds as the tree fell and they became slow and dull-witted and stupid. But since they had killed the tree of Knowledge, they could not remember the right things to do anymore, and they became more and more stupid.
One of the giant trucks backed up too far and slipped off the edge of the world. Luckily it landed on the moon which was sleeping just below the horizon. The truck was so heavy that it sank into the moon because, as we all know, the moon is made of marshmallow. The extra weight caused the moon to fall into space and it was never seen again.
Without the moon, the sea became very angry because the sea and the moon were in love. The sea gave birth to giant storms and sent them against the cities of people and killed many thousands and millions of them.
The land became angry too and sometimes it shook and shifted and great valleys and mountains were born over night because the land shook so much.
Then the sky became angry because the land and the water were angry, and the sky sent down great tempests of wind, and the wind made the sea angrier and the storms killed many thousands and millions of people in their cities.
Then the sun became angry because the world was behaving badly. When the sun gets angry it becomes very hot. It baked the land and heated the water. The last polar bear drowned in the warm sea because it couldn't find any ice to sleep on.
Still the people kept cutting down trees and driving in big machines with big black tires. And they died by the thousand and millions in the street from antimicrobially resistant diseases that they had created themselves because they were too dull-witted and stupid and they had forgotten the right things to do.
And the world spun into confusion and chaos, and death and decay.

The End.

Sleep tight, children.

---------------

This one came a little bit from some recent discussions with smilinirisheyes, but you might recognise the start from Pinocchio... :)

Posted by badlydrawnstickman on 2008-05-15 12:49:37 | Rating: