Fable of the one-eyed king, Part One

The fable of the one-eyed king

In a kingdom so old most subjects can’t remember how it began, a one-eyed King, the son of a long dynasty of royalty, ruled.

His predecessors had been benevolent rulers during the middle years of their dynasty while the kingdom thrived and the subjects increased and multiplied and explored the unlimited blessings bestowed upon them .

As happens in most dynasties, benevolence is preceded by beastliness masked by mystical necessity.  In this early epoch, the kings used their special relationship with their benefactor, their deity, to create the rock foundation of the kingdom. They justified anything they did to enhance their kingdom with the all encompassing  myth of manifest destiny, the hand of their deity in guiding them to righteous triumph over anything that got in their way. So it was easy to justify driving out or destroying or subjecting or enslaving all the dark-skinned early natives.  The story of the destruction of the natives became part of the heroic myth of this early epoch and the foundation for future myths about the heroism of the conquerors given special powers of righteousness by the kings.

In the early kingdom, the kings kept their people so busy purifying the kingdom of those who would threaten it, of exploring its breadth,  the subjects had little time to envy or even pay attention to the riches beyond their already wealthy new home. This place was rich in anything a person wished for. Their cups overflowed with the wine of the vine, with the fresh, pure water of the rivers and the lakes and the seas.

The waters were plentiful with fish, the forests with game, the fields with natural fruits and berries and grains. So much so that, as their founding story grew, it defined them not only as the Chosen People but as the People Who Had Been Blessed by Their Own Labor.  They deserved this Land of Milk and Honey because, unlike the worthless natives they displaced, they had enriched the land and made it productive to the forward magnificence of the kingdom.   

(to be continued)