Before the events of these past ten days dominated our national conversation, I had selected this week’s tale that emphasizes the consequences attendant with our inability to meet our accepted responsibilities. Responsibility refers to the duty of having authority or control over something or someone. Attendant to being responsible is being committed and accountable for the outcome of the responsibility. Once accepted, your responsibility becomes your duty.
This week’s allegorical tale is a reminder to us that in matters dealing with our responsibility, if we do not control events under our purview, we may find ourselves at the mercy of them.
All kinds of strange things came to pass in the days of long ago, but perhaps of all was that brooks and rivers used to keep watch over little children. The children and brooks ran about together, through the fields and forests. Sometimes the brooks ran first and the children followed. Sometimes the children ran first and the brooks followed. Of course, if any animal came near that would hurt the children, a brook quickly flowed around them, so that they stood on an island and were safe from harm.
In those days lived a little boy and a little girl who were the son and daughter of the king. When the children grew old enough to run about, the king called on the rivers and brooks to come and appear before him. They came gladly, for they felt sure that something pleasant would happen, and waited quietly that no one would have thought that they were so full of frolic.
“I have called you,” said the king, “to give you the care of my two little children. They like so well to run about, and of course it will be pleasant for them to have many playmates. So I felt that it would be better to ask every river and every brook to see that they are not hurt or lost.”
“We shall have the king’s own son and daughter for our playmates!” whispered the rivers. “Nothing so pleasant ever happened to us before.”
But the king went on, “If you keep my children safe and follow them so closely that they are not lost, then I will give you whatever gift you wish. But if I find that you have forgotten them one moment and they are lost or hurt, then you will be punished as no river was ever punished before.”
The rivers and even the most frolicsome little brooks were again quiet for a moment. Then they all cried together, “O king, we will be good. There were never better friends than we will be to your children.”
At first all went well, and the playmates had the merriest times that could be thought of. Then came a day when the sunshine was very warm, but the king’s children ran faster and farther than the boys and girls had ever run in the world before, and even the brooks could not keep up with them. The rivers had never been weary before, but when this warm day came, one river after another had some reason for being quiet.
One complained, “I have followed the children farther than any other river.”
“Perhaps you have,” said another, “but I have been up and down and round and round till I have forgotten how it seems to be quiet.”
Another declared, “I have run about long enough, and I shall run no more.”
A little brook said, “If I were a great river, perhaps I could run farther.”
And the great river replied, “If I were a little brook, of course I could run farther.”
So they talked, and the day passed. Night came before they knew it, and they could not find the king’s little boy or girl.
“Where are my children?” cried the king.
“Indeed, we do not know,” answered the brooks and rivers in great fear, and each one looked at the others.
“You have lost my children,” said the king, “and if you do not find them, you shall be punished. Go and search for them.”
“Please help us,” the rivers begged of the trees and the plants, and everything that had life began to search for the lost children.
“Perhaps they are underground,” thought the trees, and they sent their roots down into the earth.
“Perhaps they are in the east,” cried one animal, and he went to the east.
“They may be on the mountain,” said one plant, and so it climbed to the very top of the mountain.
“They may be in the village,” said another, and so that one crept close to the homes of the residents.
Many years passed. The king was brokenhearted, but he knew it was of no use to search longer, so he called very sadly, “Search no longer. Let each plant and animal make its home where it is. The little plant that has crept up the mountain shall live on the mountaintop, and the roots of the trees shall stay underground. The rivers—” then the king stopped, and the rivers trembled. They knew that they would be punished, but what would the punishment be?
The king looked at them. “As for you, rivers and brooks,” he declared, “it was your work to watch my little boy and my little girl. The plants and trees shall find rest and live happily in their homes, but you shall ever search for my lost children, and you shall never have a home.”
So, from that day to this, rivers have gone on looking for the lost children. They never stop, and some of them are so troubled that they flow first one way and then the other.
One may cause evil to others not only by their actions but also by their inaction, and in either case they are justly accountable to them for the injury. –John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
Have an AWE-full Weekend!
William “Bill” Bacque