(The Nationalist, c. February 2007)
Once upon a time there was a young man who lived on an island divided into seven kingdoms. They fought constantly over the one resource they all lacked – water. The suffering of his people drove him on a quest for knowledge that led him beyond the borders of his own land. Fearless in the face of possible death at the hands of enemies, he journeyed through all seven kingdoms.
Contrary to everything he had heard during years of war, he found that all peoples were essentially alike. All seven kingdoms were equally in need of water. He delved into the legends of his kingdom, risking the anger of his king and fellow subjects. Someone gave him a copy of The Great Book. In it he read, ‘What one cannot do, two can; what two cannot do, three can…,’ and so on. And then he read, ‘One for all, and all for each’.
The young man studied the lore of the land, discovering that a spring which had once supplied ample water to all seven kingdoms was lost when people stopped following the teachings of The Great Book. His call for a gathering of the seven kings was deemed high treason since thousands of men had died in the wars between the kingdoms. Only a severe drought forced his king to take unilateral action and invite the other kings to join in searching for the hidden spring. Since no king was willing to let others into his kingdom, armies picked up picks and shovels and gathered at the centre of the island.
Many years of conflict had built large walls between the kingdoms, converging at a central point. Excitement mounted as dynamite was laid at the point’s foundations. The explosion shook the earth, and a mighty shout went up from the watchers. Where the ancient walls once stood, a fountain of water shot skyward.
How to deliver it to the seven kingdoms? By this time the young man had the ear of all the people. His answer was to knock down each wall from the island’s centre to the sea. Sure enough, as the walls disappeared, each revealed a hidden stream.
It was discovered that these streams formed the original boundaries of the seven kingdoms. As each kingdom sought to preserve its own wealth, walls were formed on each side of, and then across, the streams. The life-giving spring itself was blocked as the walls converged.
The story of the lost water and its rediscovery was written into The Great Book, lest future generations forget and return to normal.
Is the story true? Not historically, I’m sure. But there is a truth in it. Confirmation of its values comes from a source which might surprise. ‘Every gun that is fired, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense, theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not only spending money, it is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children’. (General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe in World War II, and U.S president, 1952-1960.)
(The story is from Raymond Macdonald Alden, The Seven Kingdoms and the Hidden Spring, from The Boy who found the King, Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, 1922, cited in The Plough, No.33, March 2005, pp.1-2. With thanks.)