A Parable on Love & Madness

A Parable on Love & Madness***

A long long time ago, before the world was created and humans set foot on it for the first time, vices & virtues floated around and were bored, not knowing what to do. One day, all the vices and virtues were gathered together and were more bored than ever.

Suddenly, Ingenious came up with an idea:

"Let's play hide and seek!"

All of them liked the idea and immediately Madness shouted: "I want to count, I want to count!"

And since nobody was crazy enough to want to seek Madness , all the others agreed. Madness leaned against a tree and started to count: "One, two, three... "

As Madness counted, the vices and virtues went hiding.

Tenderness hung itself on the horn of the moon... Treason hid in a pile of garbage... Fondness curled up between the clouds and Passion went to the center of the earth. Lie said that it would hide under a stone, but it hid at the bottom of the lake instead, whilst Avarice entered a shack that he ended up breaking apart.

And Madness continued to count:
"seventy nine, eighty, eighty one ... "

By this time, all the vices and virtues were already hidden - except Love. For undecided as Love is, it could not decide where to hide. This should not surprise us, because we all know how difficult it is to hide Love.

Madness continued counting:
"...ninety five, ninety six, ninety seven... "

Just when Madness got to one hundred......... Love jumped into a Rose bush where it hid. Then Madness turned around and shouted out: "I'm coming, I'm coming to find you all!"

As Madness looked around, Laziness was the first to be found, because Laziness had no energy to hide well. Then he spotted Tenderness on the horn of the moon, Lie at the bottom of the lake and Passion at the center of the earth. One by one , Madness found them all - except Love. Madness was getting desperate, unable to find Love. Envious of Love, - Envy whispered to Madness: " You only need to find Love and Love is hiding in the rose bush."

Madness grabbed a pitch fork and stabbed wildly at the rosebush. Madness stabbed and stabbed until a heartbreaking cry made him stop. Love appeared from the rose bush, covering his face with his hands. Between his fingers ran two trickles of red blood down from his eyes. Madness, so anxious to find Love, had stabbed out Love's eyes with a pitch fork.

"What have I done ! What have I done ! "
Madness exclaimed,
"I have left you blind ! How can I repair it ? "

And Love answered:

"You cannot repair my eyes. But if you want to do something for me, you can be my guide."

And so it came about - that from that day on,

Love is blind and is always accompanied by Madness.



**many thanks to my sister slave for sending this to me....can't wait for her to get back to town!