Diamonds of Perception

One day I was lost in the woods. I must have been eleven years old. Because I knew the forest wasn't that big, it didn't scare me. I would walk in to a local sooner or later and he would show me the way back. And after one hour or so, indeed I ran into someone. A typical local: tanned skin, strong posture. He asked me what I was doing, this far from the civilized world. I told him I was lost. He started talking to me. I wanted to give him some money so that he would help me find my way back.

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‘I don't need anything ’, he said , 'I have everything. I've got diamonds’.

‘What?’ I asked.

‘I've got diamonds. Fields. Fields of diamonds.’

I didn't know what to think of him. He might be bragging but, at my age then, I wanted to believe him.‘So you are rich?’ I asked him.

‘Oh I've got more than diamonds. I've got a lot more. For example: mirrors.’

‘You've got mirrors?’

‘A couple of thousand. I've never counted them. Some are so big, you need a whole day to walk around them. I've got all sorts of treasures.’

So I asked him where he kept all those treasures.

‘In my place’, he explained.

-‘That must be a palace.’

-‘It is. It is.’

That could be truth. There might be some roman castle in the woods, that we didn't know about. The man was a real character. It was as if light came out of his eyes. In a way he made me think of James Kirk, from the Star Trek series. So let me call him like that: Captain Kirk.

‘My palace is so big that... Actually I still haven't seen the whole place myself. It’s that big. With giant pillars of green emerald. Thousands of them and they carry a gigantic dome. It’s so beautiful. The dome is fantastic. It’s blue with all sorts of white spots and blots.’

‘You mean a mosaic?’ I helped him.

‘I don't know what you mean boy, but you could be right. I've never been to school.’

I proudly explained to him what a mosaic was.

Then he laughed. ‘O no. That’s child play! The mosaic you talk about might be a complete bore after a while. The one you describe is always the same. On my dome the figures move. They travel slowly, like kings and queens. They transform in the most amazing images. Polar bears, winter landscapes, dwarfs with beards. And even the colors change. The blue turns to deep blue to almost purple and the white spots turn silverish grey. It’s a delight. You never get tired of it.'

‘That’s unbelievable!’ I laughed, ‘All for you? For just one man!

You must get lonely sometimes in this big palace with all the pillars and mirrors and..'

‘Never’, spoke the man. He continued: ‘There’s music too. All day long. From all sites. With ever changing tunes. It makes you feel joyful all the time. And at night there is this beautiful singer. You must hear this. Singing great solo’s. Why don't you stay over the night?’

Although I would have really wanted to say yes, my parents had wisely forbidden such. So I told him that I would come back the next day. First I had to ask my parents.

He understood. Then he explained me how to walk to town. He thought me how to follow the sun. Then I thanked him. ‘I will tell everyone about your palace. And your treasures.’

‘You go do that son!’ He hugged me.

Then I started running home. Within twenty minutes I was in the guesthouse, where my father, mother and sister were. I told them why I was late. And all about the adventure with Captain Kirk. And they believed me. Immediately. Why shouldn't they.

I had never lied to them. This was such an adventure. Unbelievable!

That evening my parents told the story to the landlord. He must have told it around because the next they everyone was talking about the pearls, the palace and the moving sealing. Nobody of the village people had heard about Captain Kirk. So they decided to go look for the man. I felt quite ashamed. Because to me, being a kid, it was all logical what the man told me. But now all those adults talked about the pearls, mirrors and treasures…All excited, it seemed a lot more important to them than to me. They asked me to guide them to Captain Kirk. And although I was a little nervous all went well and I brought them to the place. Luckily the man sat on the same spot as the day before. He loved to see all those people.

‘We come to see your palace with the pillars of emerald, the mirrors and the moving ceiling.’ The man hugged everyone.

‘Do you want a piece of bread? A glass of water?’

‘No’ they said. ‘We want to see the pearls. And because you have so many, you might give us a few.’

‘You can have pearls’ the man told, ‘as many as you want. But you have to wait till tomorrow.’

‘We want to see them now!’ they shouted.

‘But you'll have to wait. It's already dark, you can't see them now.’

In the end they agreed. And that night we all slept there, in the field. The next morning the meadow was blinking under a red sky. On every spire lay a diamond. And when the sun raised the diamonds turned into Safire’s. Pure and more shiny than jewels of the earth.

In between this richness the people stood. Waiting for the pearls, for the man to wake up. And when he opened the door, he looked at the field, with tears in his eyes:‘You're so lucky!’

‘What does he say?’

‘That many pearls. More than ever before!’

‘I don't see pearls’, one of them started.

‘We don't see pearls!’ The rest followed.

‘You don’t?’ The man grasped his head: ‘Are you guys blind!? Look around, there, everywhere. Shining in the sun.’

‘That’s dew’, one said.

‘And where are the pillars of emerald?’

The man pointed to one.

‘That’s a tree!

And the mosaic?’

‘There!’

‘That’s the sky!

And the mirrors?’

‘That are lakes.

And the music?’

‘That’s a nightingale !

‘But I told you like it is!’

At that point a sound like a storm of birdsong was heard. Birds that were not likely of earthly origin. I imagined it to be a choir of angels. But they were not...

Based on a true fairytale of Godfried Bomans

#Isis #pearls #diamonds #emerald