The most meaningful fairy tale of all time?
The Emperor’s New Clothes
Oh yes.
When the truth is spilling over and running out of me, and the truth can’t be shut up…
and I am the only one in the crowd at the parade yelling
“the emperor is naked…”
I, am not, of course, the only one. Dozens of other people in the crowd see the truth. They see all his zits and warts on display.
They see the quiver of the buttocks and the shine of the sweat and they are scared, for some reason, to acknowledge the truth.
I am MAD at them. “*&%# YOU!” I want to scream. I want to stomp on toes and I rip the truth out of their throats. I want them to look me in the eyes and tell me why they are standing by, silent, and I want them to cut the bull *@#**. I want them to OWN the reality. I want them the face it and if they don’t want to call that emperor out, I want them to at least
OWN THAT THEY DON’T WANT TO CALL HIM OUT.
Instead. I sit down on the curb. The parade is going by. The emperor didn’t hear me shout, or if he did, he didn’t care. The people nearest me told me to shut up and made a human wall that shoved me back, away from the edge, where I could see the parade.
I sit on the curb, and lower my head into my hands, and I sob.
Oh how this reaches me…. I have been here in this same place. I have lived this for so long. I have come to understand that my anger concerning the same is just, and my sorrow is understood. I have grown to know that I am not the only one who see’s and that those of us who share the same, though we seem to be orphans, we are first born and held so close.