Thought I should post this here too.
The watchtower.
Once there was a man who lived in a village where some villagers kept some of the ancient things. And he always wondered why these villagers had kept the ancient things, because they didn't appear to use them - besides, he thought less of the villagers because of the way they lived - they simply shouldn't have had them he thought.
And it had been said by all that God had a desirable treasure, so he determined that he should have this desirable treasure - deep in his heart he took pride in his efforts, to the point that he could even deserve to acquire the treasure, and he set out to find it by looking in the writings of the ancients.
As he proceeded, he started to come under the spell of the ancient writing, and he started to believe that the ancient things must have been meant for him, of course, and not for the villagers who had wasted what they had - he came to think that the ancient writing spoke of him. Although the secret to the treasure in the spell of God was hidden in plain sight, the spell was very powerful indeed, penetrating the depths of human hearts - able to confuse even the wisest people in the land - it always made the children giggle to see such a wonder right before their eyes.
So he looked at the ancient writing, and not seeing, he made his own stories up; and he looked at the ancient writing and not, seeing he made his own stories up; and he looked at the ancient writing not seeing he made his own stories up!
Now under another spell, he had become so sure of the worthiness of his effort that he made claim he was to receive the treasure of God, and though he had not found the treasure, the idea of the treasure and the stories he made in the spell drove him onward.
Meanwhile other people who had heard about the wonderful treasure heard him going about, and they heard him call, " I have found the way to the treasure. It is over here, so come right now because the time is at hand " Being concerned and even afraid to miss the opportunity they came and listened to his stories of the ancient secrets. As the people listened to the stories that he had made, they agreed how the villagers had been wasteful, and they came also to believe that the wonderful treasure was now as good as theirs.
But time passed and then he died - some became sad from the waiting, but, saving face, his most loyal followers joined together to build a tower from where they could see the wonder coming, or see those who would threaten their beliefs, and also, more others could see and believe them due to their purposeful industriousness - the tower was thought to be such a wonderful accomplishment - the people believed that it was so high that those at the top could even speak to God. And they agreed to hold onto a single language which they could teach to anyone new, with which they put them to work - building at the tower - with tall and hard walls.
Whenever the wonderful treasure seemed lost or far away, followers would tell the new stories from the tower and explain how if the tower was still there and being fortified, so too the treasure must be still coming - as they were under a spell, this seemed to work well enough. But as more promises came and went unfulfilled and the new stories were fanciful and more numerous, the people became more suspicious of the tower, but as they had helped to build it, it was hard for them to know that they were under a spell.
So, unwittingly, they had been trapped in the tower that they had helped to build! Even if they managed to break the spell and escape the tower, how could they get the others out, and undo the spell? Those who had figured it out knew that the way to break the spell was to undo their language, but by now, the builders knew this too, and they were keeping out any other type of language, and hiding any evidence of bad things that were inside - they revered that tower so much because they had built it, and they hated anyone talking badly about it - and especially anyone learning a language that could break the spell.
But unbeknown to most, during all this time, little angels had been sent by God, to confuse their language - and just as suspected, the builders, caring more about their work, had sacrificed them like little lambs. The one language that they spoke could not explain well enough what had happened, and the confusion and disagreement is in the tower - will the tower catch fire and collapse? Who will still be in there?
thepaduan
Edited by - a paduan on 17 August 2002 22:43:57