the kingdom
Once there was a fine and much loved King, who ruled over his people with love and justice. His most important wish for his people was that they would grow into fine, upstanding citizens of the kingdom. Now, this was a kingdom far away in which people lived very differently from the way that you and I do today. People mostly just looked after themselves, found themselves their own place to live and tried to figure out as best they could how they should grow up and develop over their lives.
And even though the King was good and just, some people in the Kingdom were unhappy or burdened with terrible difficulties. And some people never became good citizens of the Kingdom, but became criminals who were destructive and hurt those that they came into contact with. This made the King very sad. He wanted all of his people to be happy and to be good citizens.
Surely it would be better if people helped each other to grow and develop and supported each other all the time. So, the King sent forth a decree that from that time all citizens of the Kingdom were required to join a family – a group of other citizens who would live together to help and support each other. And from that day, the people in the Kingdom joined together in families.
Time passed and all went well for the King. The Kingdom grew and expanded, but still there were unhappy people and there were still criminals who made life difficult for everyone. The King was very concerned and called in one of his most trusted advisers to counsel him.
“I thought that if everyone lived together in families, all of these problems would be solved. Is it possible that I was wrong?” he asked.
The adviser had anticipated the King’s question, and called three citizens into the palace to an audience with the King. When the decree had first been made, the adviser had sent three palace servants out into the Kingdom to join families, to see whether the families helped the servants to become good citizens.
The first servant, who had become a fine citizen of the Kingdom, told his story. At first when he had joined a family, it had been a little awkward for everyone. People weren’t used to living together so closely together. At times, they got on each other’s nerves, or had fights about how the family should be operated, or what the house that they lived in should look like. But the members of the family had supported each other and loved each other, and had helped each other to learn how to become good citizens. The first servant said that all families should operate the way that his family did – the problems in the Kingdom happened because the other families weren’t going about things the right way. All of the members of his family were exemplary citizens. They spent their free time talking to those without families and telling them to change their ways.
The second servant was a small man, with a seemingly permanent crease in his brow. His clothes were shabby and he was dirty and unkempt. He told the King that he thought that families were a terrible idea. His family had so many rules and regulations of how to behave and how to do things that he struggled to keep up. He didn’t understand or agree with the way that the family operated, and he was constantly criticised by the other members. He had been forced to leave and make his way on his own, and now it was even more difficult for him to become a good citizen. Anything he had accomplished had been done despite his family rather than because of it. He had tears in his eyes as he told the King that families were a terrible idea and were the cause of all of the problems in the Kingdom.
The third servant silently stood up and walked over to the second servant. She put her arms around him as he began to cry. She began to cry as well, and they stood there together in front of the King and the advisor and the first servant (who seemed vaguely dismayed by what was happening). She turned to the King and softly said: “Some of your citizens have had bad experiences with families, but do not hold that against them. My family is not perfect. I am not perfect. But we are all trying to learn to be better citizens of the Kingdom. At least when we are together, we can put our arms around each other and dry each other’s tears.”