A young man went off to fight in a battle he could not win. So many had already died over endless years of tragic sacrifice, a cost perhaps too high for the pretense of peace. But most young men thrive from that they believe, not yet able to see what they do not know. And noble were this young man’s beliefs, born from the love of his country, his family, and his father.
The young man’s father let him go, torn between fear of losing his son and deep admiration of seeing his boy turn into a powerful man. Perhaps the father let him go out of too much pride and arrogance, for the son was everyth
ing the father was not. The son completed what was his father’s vision.
ing the father was not. The son completed what was his father’s vision.
To mitigate his fear, the father asked that at first chance he receive word of the fight’s outcome. Yet, this was in the day of sailing ships, and this only could be done when the ship returned home from battle. The father waited daily at the top of cliffs overlooking the port below, obsessed to see the ship’s signal of victory or defeat.
One day the father saw the ship far in the distance slowly making its way back to port. Eagerly he waited for the ship to be close enough where he could see his beloved son’s fate. But as the ship drew closer, all that came into focus was a signal of death. The loss of his first child overpowered the father. He jumped from the cliffs to his death in the waters below.
The father was not an ordinary man as he was a king. The son was not an ordinary boy as perhaps he was blessed with gifts only seen in gods. But no child is ordinary in the eyes of loving parents. Yet, love is more powerful than any of us; it is more powerful than a king. Wise are those who are awake to what love is, for it gives and it takes. And, as King Aegeus learned, to lose yourself in it is to lose the power in your life.
Gnostic Green 