Wednesday, March 18, 2009

"Grayland Fables"

Just for fun many years ago, I started writing short pensees, or fables, "derived" from the original campaign, which is to mean, I imagined them spawning from anonymous personages therein and becoming part and parcel of that backdrop consisting of folktales, legends and other trivia repeated about camp fires and at wayside attractions. Below are two of the many I've penned.

Fables of the “Graylands” Copyright 2009. Robert J. Kuntz. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts and famous quotes from anonymous to well-known historical figures.

On Subordination

An unruly knight being asked by a local baron on how he felt about being a subordinate, replied: "Have you a regular damsel that you see, Lord?"

"Well, no." replied the Baron, somewhat confused by the questioning response.

"Then have you a wife?" pressed the Knight.

"Why, yes." replied the Baron.

"How do you feel about it, Lord?"

The Baron made the Knight his closest personal adviser from that point forward.

--Anonymous


The King's Adviser

The King decided one day to test his adviser's knowledge, having not done this recently.

"Why do women pretend to be pure when this is unattainable?" he asked.

The sage replied: "For they seek godliness but are confused by its limits."

Encouraged, the King continued: "Then why is man content with being impure?"

"For," replied the sage, "they have seen these limits and know them as unattainable and thus are reconciled with their dispositions."

Thinking to catch him unaware, the King blurted, "How is it that you answer all of my questions unflinchingly?"

Non-plussed, the sage replied, "For you are the King and I but your sage; thus it is your whim to ask and my duty to respond."

Slamming his fist upon the table between them, the King shouted, "How do you know these things!?"

Smiling, the sage said, "If I knew that, I would now be the one with the sore hand."

--Anonymous

1 comment:

rafael beltrame said...

i love those. i have read (dont remember the sorce, but its a Zen story) one that was something like this: the rich lord ask for the monk what was the path to hell and the path to heaven.
the monk say that it was a individual path, and he couldnt tell him.
the lord gets very angry:
"what?! i gave you food, clothes and money! why cant you tell me?"

and the monk answers:

"'cause you are too stupid, and your children are stupid and all you grand children are stupid".

the lord gets very angry, take his sword and say:
"im gonna kill you, bastard!!"

then, the monk get to hes feet:
"THATS THE PATH TO HELL!"

the lord got scared, and asked for forgivnes.
"and thats the path to heaven" completed the monk .
;)