Allegedly, today is the saddest day of the year - the third Monday in September makes people sad, for many reasons. That’s why I share with you a story that always cheers me up. Enjoy!
There was a king named Trajan. That emperor had goat ears, so he called the barbers to shave him. But as he went, he did not return, because when he shaved the emperor, he would ask him what he saw on him. The barber would reply that he had seen goat ears, so the emperor would cut him down immediately.
So it was the turn of a master barber, but he became ill and sent his apprentice. When the young man went out before the emperor, the emperor asked him why the master had not come, and he replied that he was ill. Then Emperor Trajan sat down and the apprentice shaved him. Shaving the emperor, the young man noticed that there were goat ears in him, but when Trajan asked him what he saw in him, he replied that he saw nothing. Then the emperor not only did not cut him, but gave him a bag of gold coins and told him that from now on he always comes to shave him.
When the young man came home, the master asked him how the emperor was. The apprentice replied that he was fine and that the emperor had told him that he would shave him constantly from then on. He showed the bag of gold coins he had received from the emperor, but did not say that he had seen goat ears in the emperor. From that time on, the young man kept going and shaving Trajan. He would get gold for every shave, Sali did not tell anyone that the emperor had goat ears.
But after a while he began to torture and bite him for not telling anyone, so he began to wither and perish. The master noticed this and asked him what it was, and the apprentice answered many questions that he had something on his heart, but he was not allowed to tell anyone.
"But if only," he says, "I can tell someone, I would be immediately relieved."
Then the master said to him:
"Tell me, I won't tell anyone. And if you are afraid to tell me, and you go to the priest, then tell him. If you don't want him either, and you go to the forest behind the city, dig a pit and put your head in it, and tell the earth three times what you know. Then bury the pit again. The earth will keep your secret. ”
The young man chooses the third. He went behind the city into the woods, and dug a pit, and stuck his head in it, and said three times:
“Goat ears in Emperor Trajan! Goat ears in Emperor Trajan! Goat ears in Emperor Trajan! ”
After a while, an elderberry sprouts from that pit. On it three rods grew beautiful and flat as a candle. Once the shepherds found that elderberry, cut off the rod and made a flute out of it, but when they started playing, it sounded:
"Goat ears in Emperor Trajan!"
Emperor Trajan himself was convinced that nothing could be hidden on earth, so he forgave the life of that barber, and then allowed anyone to shave him. This fairy tale vividly points to the fact that the truth cannot be hidden, that it always breaks through, no matter how much it is pushed into the hole. But it also points to the fact that the mere revelation of a secret does not condition the disappearance of the emperor's monstrosity.
The secret is now only legalized, legalized: I have goat ears and what can anyone do to me? From now on, everyone knows, but again, no one is allowed to say that the emperor is a freak, because everyone who says that will end up as barbers who dared to do so.
The story of Emperor Trajan is still relevant in everyday life. We see one exploitative, tyrannical and reactionary government that steals, kidnaps, sells, lies and cheats just to stay in power. We see the greed of the powerful and its greed without borders. We see the vast majority of people living below all human dignity and a man who is morally decaying and dying materially.
We would see columns of evicted, unemployed, disenfranchised, disappointed, deceived, impoverished, stolen, columns of exploited, exploited and oppressed people… We are all silent and the success of the dictatorship rests on our fear.
Good post