Amongst all young women in the kingdom, princess Ameline possessed the blondest hair, the bluest eyes, and the saddest heart.
Her parents, the late King and Queen, had entrusted her to a convent for
her education years ago, so long ago that nobody could remember.
The opportunity
Ameline was not a good student and, instead of repeating litanies with
the other novices, she had taken up the habit of scurrying out of the
convent to play in the nearby woods.
One Tuesday afternoon, barbarians attacked the convent, killed all nuns
and novices, stole all cookies, and went away. When Ameline returned to
the convent, she found herself to be the only survivor of the massacre.
She left the convent, walked to the city, and went directly to the Royal
Palace, which she found empty, except for an old man who made his
living guiding tourists. "Where are the barons and the servants?"
inquired Ameline.
The passage of time
The old man examined attentively her face and smiled. "You are princess
Ameline," he said. "I have not seen you for a long time." He explained
to Ameline that, after the King's and Queen's death many years ago, the
kingdom administration had decayed into oblivion and finally vanished
altogether. "Nevertheless, the palace is yours," he went on, "as well as
the gold in the caves."
Ameline started a new life and began to live like real princess. Even
though she was overall respected, she lacked one essential thing and
that deprivation made her deeply unhappy: Ameline had no birthday.
Disorientation
Hardly a week went by without Ameline being invited to this or that
birthday party. Everybody in the kingdom had his own birthday, that is,
everybody except Ameline. At night, she dreamed of having her own
birthday party and cake, but that was not to be.
Ameline's parents were dead, as well as the nuns in the convent. How
could she possibly find out on which precise day she had been born? What
is even worse, Ameline had no clue about how old she was. As time
passed, she grew more and more depressed about her deficiency.
How could she ever be sure if she was old enough to marry? What if she
ever wanted to sell her palace? How would she prove to the notary that
she was of age? The old man, whom Ameline had allowed to continue his
job as tourist guide in the palace, saw the princess whither away and
decided to have a talk with her.
Hopelessness
"My situation is hopeless and no one can help me," Ameline explained to
him. "It would have been better if I had died in the convent." The old
man listened attentively to Ameline's troubles and shook his head. "You
are mistaken to think that you are the only one who has no birthday," he
replied.
The princess was surprised to hear that. Was the old man lying in order
to comfort her? "That's not true," she countered irritated. "I have seen
everybody having birthday parties."
The rational solution
The old man nodded. "When the kingdom administration disappeared, the
birthday registry turned to dust, and nobody was any longer certain
about his own birthday. That created some disorientation, but after a
while, people shrugged their shoulders and began to throw birthday
parties whenever they saw fit. Sometimes twice per year, often twice per
week."
The princess stared at the old man for a long moment, until she seized
the full meaning of his words. Then she went to the palace kitchen and
gave orders to prepare her a dozen birthday parties. She had a lot to
catch up with.
For more information about rational living and personal development, I refer you to my book The 10 Principles of Rational Living
[Text: http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com]
[Image by Loimere under Creative Commons Attribution License. See the license terms under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us]
Friday, 14 September 2012
The best investments, what to invest in, stocks to buy in the stock market today
- Metro (Germany)
- Medtronic (United States)
- Arcelor Mittal (Luxembourg)
- Ericsson Telephone Company (Sweden)
- Delhaize Group (Belgium)
- IBM (United States)
- Baidu (China)
- Ford Motor Company (United States)
- eBay (United States)
- 3M Co (United States)
- Bank of Nova Scotia (Canada)
- Market Vectors Africa ETF
- iShares MSCI Russia Capped Index ETF
- Kraft Foods (United States)
Disclaimer: either I already own shares of these companies or I am currently considering to add them to my investment portfolio.
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Personal Development
Free e-book: how to be rational and find peace of mind, keys to stress management
A free e-book presentation of my work “The 10 Principles of Rational Living” can be downloaded in this link
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Personal Development,
Philosophy,
Psychology
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