Change the world…

Django Reinhardt. Harlan Ellison. Virginia Wolf. Toni Morrison. Whitney Houston. Frida Kahlo. Stieg Larssen. Billie Holiday. Margaret Atwood.
Did they set out to change the world? I can’t answer that, yet I can say that they sure did.

There was once a young captain of the guard. He had successfully risen through the ranks, achieved goals, and proven himself to be intelligent and capable. Yet the king was concerned about his arrogance and seeming to think he was superior to others. The king wanted the young captain to continue in his career yet learn that he was not superior to everyone else. A lesson in humility, thought the king, was needed. He thought, and thought, what task could he assign to the young captain that could not be achieved that might enlighten him?
Then one day, he thought of one and summoned the young captain.
“Captain,” began the king, “I have a task for you.”
“At your service,” replied the young captain enthusiastically.
“Bring to me something that makes a happy man sad, and a sad man happy.”
“Yes Sir!”
“You have one year to find this and return it to me.”
“I will be done much sooner than that,” the captain nodded and saluted the king. He bowed and left the king’s chamber.
The captain began his search that very day. What would make a happy man sad and a sad man happy? He went to the town’s market, the nearby ports, neighboring villages’ vendors. Nothing the vendors or merchants offered him matched the task. Over the next months, he traveled near and far, up the coast of the Mediterranean, northern coast of Africa, even to the island of Cyprus. He was nearing the end of the year given him, his horse was thin and tired, when one day he crossed paths with a traveling merchant, whose wagon was filled with pots and pans and tools.
As tired as he was, the captain chatted with the merchant and asked him, “Do you have something that would make a happy man sad and a sad man happy?”
The merchant tipped his head in thought, then said, “No, yet come have dinner with my father and I. He has done many, many things over the years. We’ll ask him.
So the captain went home with the merchant. After the first meal he had had in many days, he thanked the father, who then asked him, “What is it that you are seeking, young traveler?”
The captain shook his head, “My task is to bring the king something that will make a happy man sad and a sad man happy.”
“Ah,” said the father. He sat back in thought for a while, then said, “I have an idea. Give me a few minutes.” Off he went into his workshop.
The captain and the young vendor heard scraping and hammering from the father’s workshop. Sometime later, the father came out and opened his hand.
“What do you think of this?”
The captain looked at the steel ring in the father’s hand a long moment. “That’s it!” he said. “How can I thank you?”
The father smiled. “You go back to your king and live a good life.”
At the first light of day the next morning, the captain set out for his home. When he arrived at the king’s castle, there was a great celebration in progress. The king was celebrating 25 years of his reign, a time of peace as well as growth in the kingdom. The king was happy and exuberant. When the young captain entered the celebration, the king smiled anticipating the captain’s humility as he admitted his defeat.
The king was surprised as the captain knelt before him, held his open hand out to the king, and said, “Your majesty, I believe I have accomplished the task.”
The king reached forward to take the simple steel ring from the captain’s hand. As he looked at it, his expression went from a celebratory, smiling expression to one of dismay as he read the inscription on the ring. “This too shall pass.”

Do we each change the world? Probably. Is that our intention? Who knows, as we truly can’t be sure.
We do our best writing, painting, singing, drawing, whatever impels us, right? What others think is up to them. Harlan was pretty clear on that!
How do we get through whatever is going on for each of us? The good, the not so good, the amazing, the sad? Ah, This too shall pass.

Thank you for reading. If you are so inclined, let your friends know about my site.
And of course, my book!