I dictated this story while watching the Terry Gilliam movie The Fisher King. The story is told by Parry in the first scene in Central Park at night. At least one point can be extracted from the story: the single minded pursuit of personal satisfaction is doomed to failure. Only through other pursuits can true happiness be realized.
Here is the story...
It begins when the king is a boy. He has to spend a night alone in the forest, to prove his courage so he can become a king. And while he's spending the night alone, he is visited by a sacred vision. Out of the fire, appears the Holy Grail. A symbol of Gods divine grace.
And a voice said to the boy: "You shall be keeper of the grail, so that it may heal the hearts of men."
But the boy was blinded by greater visions of a life filled with power and glory and beauty. And in his state of radical amazement, he felt for a brief moment not like a boy, but invincible. Like God. So he reached into the fire to take the grail, but the grail vanished, leaving him with his hand in the fire to be terribly wounded.
Now, as this boy grew older, his wound grew deeper, until one day, life, for him, lost it's reason. He had no faith in any man, not even himself. He couldn't love or feel loved. He was sick with the experience. He began to die.
One day, a fool wandered into the castle and found the king alone. And being a fool, he was simple minded; he didn't see a king, he only saw a man alone and in pain.
And he asked the king; "what ails you, friend?"
And the king replied; "I'm thirsty, I need some water to cool my throat."
So, the fool took a cup from besides his bed, filled it with water and handed it to the king. As the king began to drink, he realised his wound was healed. He looked in his hands and there was the Holy Grail; that which he sought all of his life.
He turned to the fool and asked in amazement: "How could you find that, which my brightest and bravest could not?"
And the fool replied: "I don't know. I only know that you were thirsty."
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Questions...
What is YOUR "Holy Grail"?
What important things in your life are difficult to realize?
How can you take a more simple look at things that are illusive in your life?
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