Randerup 40
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Quotation of the week
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The Magic Boy VI
The Trip
By
Per Jespersen
Sebastian’s and Sharon’s class was to go on a trip into the mountains. Their class teacher wanted them to see the huge waterfall. They had heard about it their whole lifetime, as there were so many legends about this place. Sharon was especially interested in the one, that dealt with a woman living there. She was called The Goddess of Aqua, and she was supposed to be several hundred years old. Nobody has ever seen her, but it was in her power to guide the amount of water that could fall every day. It all depended on the way human beings behaved. If they made a war, the waterfall would dry out, so that farmers living further below had no water for their fields. When people stopped their cruelties, the water would fall again. “It’s just a good story,” Sebastian said. “From older times. They could give no explanations for the change of the fall,” Sharon said. “I do like that kind of stories. There’s always a fragment of truth in them.” “Oh yes. I should very much like to see it.” “It’s very kind of the teacher, as the school has no money for such a trip. He’s paying the whole thing himself.” “My goodness. Did he tell you that? We have to give him a present, then.” “I know. It’s already settled.” “The day I was ill?” “Exactly.” “There are so many special places in Nature,” Sebastian said. “Such as The Yellow River in China. And The Tibetan Plains. But it’s so far away.” “We’ll see them one day, Sharon.” They were standing in the school yard, waiting for the rest of the class to come. The teacher was there, and he looked so excited. “Have you been there,“ Sebastian asked. “No never.” “So it’s your first time, too.” “Sure. I can’t wait” “Neither can I,” Sebastian said. “It’s kind of magic. I do like places with magic.” “He’s a magician himself,” Sharon said. “No, I’m not. I’m an ordinary and rather kind boy,” Sebastian said. “So you are,” the teacher said. Now the bus rolled into the school yard, and all the students stepped on board. After a couple of minutes they drove out of the gate. Sebastian and Sharon were sitting beside each other, looking at the landscape, that changed from city into villages and finally into remote and peopleless areas. “Oh,” Sharon said. “I like the thought that there still are places in this world with no people. It’s wonderful.” “Sure. Imagine The Tibetan Plains. I love remoteness as well. Maybe because we live in a city.” “City life is interesting in its own way. But I should like to try to live quite alone in a completely remote area. Like Iceland maybe.” “I’ll be there with you,” Sebastian laughed. “I mean it.” “I know. But why do people prefer city life?” “Safety. They’re not quite on their own. It’s sort of cowardy. Modern people can’t do on their own.” “But I feel they are growing more and more selfish.” “It’s too easy to be selfish, when there are other people around. That’s the modern spiritual problem.” “And how can we stop it?” “I’m not sure. It needs wisdom and not knowledge.” “What’s the difference?” They were disturbed in their conversation by the teacher, who announced, “We still have forty miles to go, so maybe I should tell you a bit of the history of the waterfall.” “Good idea.” “There was some kind of tribe of the very first human beings here. It lived there and they were the first to grow the fields below the fall. There were very few places in the world, in which people lived like humans: they could think, conclude, and had a language. It’s around 70.000 years ago. In every tribe most of the people were alike and thought in the same way. But in all tribes, as this one, there is one or two, who is capable of thinking differently. They were held out of the common life and went their own way. In this tribe there was a woman, who picked the fruit of the trees and the grass. She kept it during the winter and gave it back to the gods by spreading the seeds on the ground. She did that on behalf of the whole tribe every year, but one day something happened in her mind. It was a question, which was put for the first time in the world. How could it be that the gods always awarded her tribe by letting new trees and new grass grow exactly on the spot where she had spread the seeds? Was there another explanation? Without telling the tribe she went to another area and found some plants, which did not grow on her place and spread them over the fields. And then it happened: these new plants grew up, where she had spread them. So she concluded that the seeds must have something in them, which made them grow up like the plants they were taken from. That was a quite new thought at that time. Now we know all that, but do we understand it? No, of course not. But there was another woman, who took water from the river in buckets of wood, and she wondered, that sometimes there was much water, and sometimes almost nothing. They did not know about the rainfalls upstream at that time, so she had to make her own conclusion: the amount of water depended on human behaviour. And she found it true, because in the year when there were some fightings with the neighbouring tribe, there was no water in the river below the fall. That meant that they had to behave properly to be sure to have water for their fields. And now we’re going to that waterfall. And besides that: close to the fall men had recently found a very important thing: a lot of snail shells with a hole in them. They had been used for a neckless 70.000 ago. And they even found some small stones with geometric patterns on them. I tell you, they were wise at that time! And now we’re going there.” “This is amazing,” Sharon said. “Our very oldest ancestors have been living here.” “That’s something. But it makes me think. In a thousand years people will think that we reached the wrong conclusions in our society.” “You are sure right,” Sharon said. “Of course we do. That’s development. But something is the same through the ages, Sebastian.” “What?” “You know that, don’t you. The spiritual thinking, religious thinking, magic and love.” “Love too?” “Yes love too.” “Don’t you think that all the modern things we use now have an impact on the spiritual life in us?” “It can damage it, I know that. But somewhere deep down it’s the same. We suppress it in modern society, which finds spirituality ridiculous.” “I guess you’re right. But look, we’re close now.” They all looked out of the windows and saw this amazing old forest, and as the bus stopped they could hear the noise from the waterfall. They all rushed out, but heard the teacher tell them to be quiet, totally quiet. “It’s kind of a holy place here. You have to be silent and just listen to the sound from the waterfall. And remember: we are only here, because Sebastian told me about it.” “What,” whispered Sharon. “That’s right,” Sebastian said. “This fall is not described in any book, and scientists have not found it or known about it.” “And you?” “Sharon, I don’t know. I assure you. I would have told you, but it came to me when I talked to the teacher last week.” “Sebastian, you’re the boy of surprises!” They all went down the slope. There was a path behind the falling water, and they all stood there and felt hat they were far away from everything behind a wall of falling water. It was amazing, and Sharon whispered, “Thank you, Sebastian. You are the star of my life.” “And you are the sky on which I move.” Hand in hand they followed the others to the valley, from where they could see the waterfall in its full size. “Marvellous,” Sharon said. “Listen,” Sebastian whispered. “The noise is not there anymore.” They all gazed and saw the waterfall stop. The noise was gone and there was no water falling. On the top of the mountain they saw the woman, The Goddess of Aqua, standing in her white gowns and with hair shining like gold. Beside her was Sebastian. “What,” they all shouted. And Sharon thought to herself, “Nothing can surprise me with Sebastian any more. Gosh!!!” And then they heard Sebastian’s voice: “Blessed be you all if you don’t make war and fightings, but take care of the people close to you. Blessed be you!!!!!” And the water came again. The waterfall was there again. And Sebastian took Sharon’s hand. “Thank you,” Sharon whispered.” You’re the best. Always!!”
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