THE GATHERING: A MODERN FRACTURED FAIRYTALE

In a cottage at the edge of town, an acclaimed artist awoke from sleep screaming. She had experienced an illusion shattering premonition in a dream. She had seen a vision foretelling what was ahead for the people. In the dream, she saw a great gathering of people looking adoringly at the King giving him their rapt attention and becoming increasingly agitated as he spoke. When he finished speaking, he raised his fist and pointed toward the iconic building where all laws of the land originated. The people were poisoned in their minds and hearts by the multitude of lies the King had told them during the last four years, which had resulted in a toxic ocean of fear and hate. in her dream, that toxicity was obvious and rampant amongst the people at the gathering . She awoke screaming because she had seen the horrible consequences of all those lies. The dream had culminated in violence and blood.

Most of the people of the land were frightened about their future. Four years under the previously elected Executive’s rule had brought little to the tables of the common folk and a lot to the tables of the King, as he preferred to be called, and his minions. The King had a bad habit of lying about things both great and small. He had been lying to the people for so long that most of them had lost their ability, and in some cases, even their desire to discriminate between fact and fiction. When he was a business tycoon, the King had lied and once he gained political power through an election, his lying had taken on a greater scope. However, though frightened, the people followed him because he repeatedly told them that only he could fix everything that was broken. Fueled by their fears and desperation, they believed him and embraced his lies as truth.

Greater problems arose when the time came for the King's reelection because a plague ravaged the land revealing flaws that needed to be addressed in the public health system. Sadly, these flaws were not addressed. The King declared with a wave of his hands that the pestilence would disappear magically. It didn’t. Many people died of the plague. In fact, most of the things he had promised to fix or build were not fixed or built by the end of his elected term, and he lost the election to a fellow with lots of experience in sorting out problems in government.

The King refused to acknowledge he had lost. He traveled around the land for two months prior to the Inauguration of the newly elected Executive gaining support for his biggest lies of all. The King claimed he had not lost the election. He had won. The election was stolen from him. He repeatedly pushed the story-trap of “us v. them.” Such a narrative had not ended well when that same story-trap had ensnared the people’s ancestors in ages past, but his followers had forgotten their own history. The King expanded his claim to overturn the results of the election through multiple court cases, which he lost. This infuriated him, so on the day the newly elected Executive was to be officially certified as the winner, the King called upon his supporters to gather one more time outside the Great House, home to the top elected official of the land. The invitation to the gathering went out two weeks in advance using the chit chat online option. Many people saw it and made their plans to come to this gathering that the King promised would be wild.

The King was very excited about this gathering and wanted to have a majestic new suit of clothes to wear for the gathering. He decided to have a contest and sent out his minions to find fashion designers to enter the contest. “Design for the King! Win a prize!” This caused quite a stir among authentic designers, and others who wanted to try for the unnamed prize. Many designers came and went presenting drawings and obsequiously appealing to the King’s vanity, which was immense. All to no avail. The King was not pleased at all. The date of the gathering was drawing near. RSVPs were pouring in from all over the land. The King was becoming desperate and continuously obsessed over what he would wear to the gathering.

Finally, one day, two young, enterprising designers well versed in the art of sycophancy, arrived at the Great House. They praised the King and complimented him assiduously while measuring him always proclaiming what a fine figure of a man he was.

A few days later, they arrived with many boxes. They opened a box and described its contents of pants, shirt, jacket, amidst an ongoing patter about how fine these clothes would look on him, making him more handsome than ever and thus more believable than ever. Grinning with anticipation, the King stood ready. The designers shooed everyone else from the room, and they dressed the King. He stood proudly in his new clothes.

Various Great House workers were brought in one at a time to view the King in his new attire. Because they desired to please him and not incur his wrath, they all said how fine he looked in his new attire. The King was delighted. So, he finally looked in his special mirror, which always reflected what he wanted to see not reality, and so he saw what he wanted to see, himself dressed in splendid attire. Yet, he had a nagging feeling that something was missing.

“Where’s my tie?” growled the King.

“Right here,” bespoke one of the designers and brought forth from his pocket a bright red tie which he looped around the King’s neck and stepped back.

“Ah, perfect!” exclaimed the King, patting the tie.

Meanwhile, after awakening from her dream, the acclaimed artist felt obligated to warn the people about her premonition, whether they believed her warning, or not, she had to try. She was an intuitive but admittedly didn’t always know how something would actually play out in real time. Nevertheless, she felt it was urgent for the health and well-being of the people that she try to warn them.

There were three days left before the gathering at the Great House was scheduled to happen. She spent the first day furiously painting words on multiple large cardboards that said such things as:

        -THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE!

        -WHEN YOU ARE FREE TO SEE TRUTH, YOU WILL REJECT LIES.

-AFTER REJECTING LIES, YOU WILL SING AND DANCE AND BE THE BEST YOU CAN BE…ALL OF YOU!

-BE KIND.

-LOVE EACH OTHER.

-CARE FOR EACH OTHER.

-LOVE LIGHTS THE WAY TO TRUTH.

Around midnight, she fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

On the second day, she mounted the cardboards on the outside of her retired school bus that she used for her traveling art shows. She drove all around the neighborhoods surrounding the Great House. The ever-alert journalists that covered the Great House filmed clips and the clips began to attract attention on the nightly news shows, especially the late-night comedians.

On the third day before the gathering, she was interviewed on national television by a well-known cable news journalist. The journalist asked her why she was sending out her message. She patiently told the story of her dream and the premonition of violence resulting from the continued lies from the King. She said she felt it was her duty as a citizen to warn the people. Most people thought she was a religious or political crackpot and ignored the warning. In reality, she was neither. She was simply a citizen who cared about Truth. The last words she uttered in the interview were, “Change is coming. I do not claim to know what form it will take. I do know that in my dream there was blood and violence.” Then, the network producers abruptly ended her interview with a disclaimer on a black screen disavowing endorsement of the content of the interview.

The Great House staff issued a statement saying the artist was in the hospital being treated for mental instability. This was a lie. The word on the street was, “Ah, just another crazy artist.” The people who had been planning to go to the gathering ignored the warning and went. More people also went who were intrigued by the warning, even if they didn’t actually believe in it.

In the end, attendance in-person at the gathering the next day tripled what was expected. Men, women, and children streamed into the park near the Great House, where the gathering was taking place. Most were excited to see the King’s new attire which had been publicized by the Great House media team for a week before the gathering. Media coverage was massive and millions tuned it to watch.

The day of the gathering began with a military parade escorting the becloaked King to the stage where the microphone awaited him. He had declined a podium because he wanted his new attire to be in full view of the people. The King waved, and then with great drama, shed his cloak to show off his newly designed attire. He preened before the crowd. Everyone clapped. That is, all except one child who stared and stared without clapping, even when her mother nudged her to do so. She just continued to stare at the King.

Then, the King stepped up to the microphone to speak. The crowd quieted in anticipation. From the back of the crowd, the acclaimed artist watched in horror as the familiar shower of lies was again presented as facts.

The King vociferously claimed, “Only I can save you from the perils posed by the forces against me, which means anyone who isn’t with me. Are you with me?” The crowd roared with glee. He continued, “I really won the recent election, not the other fellow. There was massive voter fraud. The election was stolen. I am your true King and always will be.” The crowd roared again with glee.

At this point in his speech, the King paused to take a sip of water with both hands from a filled glass on a small nearby table. The crowd was silent, waiting for him to continue when suddenly a child’s voice rose into the air.

“Look, Mommy, the King has nothing on but that red tie! He looks so funny…” the child said and exploded into a fit of giggles.

The child’s giggles started a chain reaction in the crowd. Laughter rippled through the crowd and as the laughter spread from person to person, that laughter opened the people’s eyes and hearts, and they saw the truth. Their king was standing naked on the stage but for the red tie.

The King didn’t know why they were laughing since he thought laughter wasn’t warranted given the beauty of his new attire and the beauty of himself. Thus, the laughter angered him. He slammed down the glass of water and raised his hand in the power salute all knew only too well. He started to speak but before he could utter another word, he began to sputter and gag, choking uncontrollably. He grabbed at his tie as if it were a lifeline, but the gagging only got worse. Many people thought he was just trying to be funny, as he sometimes did, and laughed louder to show their appreciation of his joke. However, each laugh only meant more people were awakened to see the truth that the King was naked. Greater laughter rose from the crowd. With each laughing voice, the King’s gagging grew worse. Minions rushed onto the stage to try to help, but he waved them off. Seconds passed. They stood and watched along with all the people at the gathering and those watching everywhere on media as the King turned shades of blue and then a deep royal purple and keeled over face first onto the stage. Dead.

From her vantage point in the crowd, the acclaimed artist who had heeded her premonition and tried to warn the people, smiled. She understood immediately. The King had choked on his own lies fueled by the words of truth spoken by a child and the people’s laughter. She was grateful that her premonition of violence and blood had not come to be that day; the Light of Truth had been rekindled. She turned and left the gathering.

Pandemonium broke loose in her wake. Each giggle, chortle, and laugh escaping the lips of the people was now accompanied by shouts and mutterings from the people as their awakening progressed, and they emerged from the illusory web of the King’s lies that had entrapped them for years. Now, he who was once their king lay naked and dead on the stage before the eyes of the world.

Myth-makers, corrupted politicians, and Great House doctors tried to spin what happened by saying the King had choked on water, but that last big lie didn’t take hold in the minds of the people. Everyone knew he died choking on his many lies when his nakedness was revealed by a child. Everyone knew the people’s hearts and minds had opened to truth that day when they had laughed together as one at the naked King in his red tie. Laughter opened the way for the Light of Truth to shine, and shine it did on and on and on.