THERE was once a little princess who--
"But, Mr. Author, why do you always write about princesses?"
"Because every little girl is a princess."
"You will make them vain if you tell them that."
"Not if they understand what I mean."
"Then what do you mean?"
"What do you mean by a princess?"
"The daughter of a king."
"Very well, then every little girl is a princess, and there would be no need to say anything about it, except that she is always in danger of forgetting her rank, and behaving as if she had grown out of the mud. I have seen little princesses behave like the children of thieves and lying beggars, and that is why they need, to be told they are princesses. And that is why, when I tell a story of this kind, I like to tell it about a princess. Then I can say better what I mean, because I can then give her every beautiful thing I want her to have."[1]
The truth of this little passage that MacDonald wrote about holds so many truth and had me wondering of the intensity of the roles that we often forget and at times even forfeit, not just in our minds and our hearts but also in ourselves as a whole. The difficulty with this as i have come to see it is that we have seen the sun shining down on us,as for our own pleasure and not as it is for the pleasure of the King who would see his children smile, play and laugh in the sunshine.
We often bend down and take lower positions because it is often easier to be base and not have as many troubles worry us. It is no unknown fact that great power or in this case great position calls for a greater need of responsibility. Now it is not within my right to say that some have and others havent been observing this principal, as that is not a fit office for me to assume but it would be fair for me to assume, even in my biased view, that i have seen a good few who give up their dreams to fight and strive for a good of the whole. A good that may be enjoyed by the many are often struggled for by the few. Is it not this fight that we are called to endure this post that may have been ours, but then again all posts are not for every man, but every man may fight his post with the honor and dignity that makes him or her worthy of the title that is theirs and theirs alone to bear.
C.S. Lewis states that this quality that emerges in us is often seen when we would have less love when compared to the abundant love that hass been offered to us. He (Lewis) spoke of love but it is also to be seen that it is also seen of royal lineage. It is always easy to point the finger and blame the dark but it it takes a hint of leadership to step out into the darkness with the lamp, it takes a bit of royal blood to do that. This brings me to a very interesting little point that goes something like this, We choose to be arrogant, rude and mischevious. To call the vices our own and to hold the virtues as far away from us as possible is a choice that we take atleast one every day maybe not willfully but not against our own will, well maybe this may not apply to all of us but the reader will have to forgive me here as i have taken the liberty of making the these statements from my own shoes. Now i do not assume that we know all the right choices to make but i trust that we are all given nudges to the right path, hints to the right answer and stong hands that may lead us if we but given in. It is the prince and the princess that need correction the most, it he or she who need the lessons on servitude and a good king always sees it through that we learn what we are to learn. It when we are learning our lessons that we often show this concern that Mr. Lewis speaks of, the need that we show for less love, the hope that the king would leave us alone.
A hope for a smaller portion of love should, i hope never be our want, and should never ever stop us from being who we are, we who are called to have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Let us not for get our place or our post for the day will come when the king comes home hoping to see his children and the little princes and princesses cannot be found as waifs playing in the mud but doing what is expected of us.
[1] Extract taken from "The princess and the Goblin" by George MacDonald (Chapter 1)
[2] Image from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhooSWm27G3SGktKRAAwN7T1-BUmTaYt-9uBQ9cPsHY6yFSRgXztK1fs04Y_aPByl6WrcAhZflTL0gnY8feE9-v7KEO6VUgrBqZrh5_RVP15J1DxzGKt8vjKf61t3zAMPywWg5acu5sGzto/s1600/storytelling.gif
Derick
