Good bye

The Lady of the Lake says good bye to this blog. At least until she can be The Lady of the Lake again.

Something is wrong in Denmark

There is something wrong in Denmark.....

I'm confused. Sometimes we go to paths led by some misterious reasons that we don't even know the answer. And then the shivers.... like if there was a big picture right here and you can't see the bigger picture because you're IN it....

Awckward....

Like playing hide and seek with lights off.... the shivering goes on and on....

Who is behind the door?
Who is behind the curtains?
Is anybody in the back door room?
Is anybody in the end of the dark corridor?

Shivers.... all over the body.....
It is really cold in the dark.....

The legend of the dragon and the panda

Long, long ago, at a time memory can't remember, there were 2 brothers that lived in China. They were born in a small town and they had a pretty good life, compared to the other people, not meaning they were rich or anything. But they were definitely smarter and not as ordinary as the other people. They had something special about them.

Not only different from the others they were, but also very different from each other. One, the oldest, was sweet and calm and very compassionate. His patience knew no limits and, because of this, he was known as "the wise brother". His heart was as big as his body, round and slow. He truly cared about everybody else and didn't mind if people didn't thank him or remembered of him.

The youngest brother, on the other hand, was very impulsive and bad-tempered. Not that he was a bad man; but he had envy on him and this envy usually led him to anger. Maybe his envy was associated with his vanity - but whatever the case was, he didn't know how to control it.
He was known in the village as "the air-headed brother", because of his imprudent acts, like getting into fights and bragging. That used to make him even angrier. He envied his older brother's patience and kindness. He couldn't believe it was real - for him, his brother was faking it, to pass by the people as a good man, whereas in reality, he was as envy and vain as him.

The younger brother, at the same time, had love and admiration for the older one. Deep inside his heart, he wished people loved him and respected him as they did to his brother. He just didn't know how to gain it.

One day, as the brothers were going into another village to sell his father's goods, two bandids assaulted them and were punching his brother, in order to get the purse of gold he was carrying. The younger one, totally dominated by anger and fear for his brother's life, start to fight the two bandids, not carrying they had knives on them. As he was very strong built, he could get the knives from the bandids and, instead of killing them, he let them run away.
The older brother, full of gratitude, asked the younger why he didn't kill them (which would have been the younger's natural response to the assault). The younger told him, "I felt pity for them". The older, then, told his brother how proud he was of his act of generosity towards those two that tried to harm them. The younger just smiled, as proud as a peacock. He had loved the feeling of deciding upon life and death - the feeling of power - and now he loved even more the feeling of being considered "a good man", a "brave man", "the savior of the weak and indefense".

Turns out that someone had seen him doing that. There was a peasant hidden behind a tree who saw everything. Getting to the village, he told all the people about how one single man had fight hard to save his brother's life. When the two brothers arrived in the village, everybody wanted to talk to the youngest and congratulate him for his courage.

The younger thought, "They love me! They recognize how good and brave I am!", and his heart got full of happiness. The older brother was happy to see his little brother's happiness. But a mean thought came into his mind," I hope he is happy for the fact that I am ok and that he did the right thing, not for the feeling of being recognized". But he soon felt embarassed of these thoughts and went on with his duties.

From this day and on, the younger brother was always trying to help someone, making sure there was always a witness around. Whenever there wasn't anybody, he would tell someone else how unlucky somebody was, but fortunately he was around and had been able to offer some help. And he would make sure that at least 3 people knew about his "good heart" and would recognize how good he was and praise him. His anger gave path to pride. He no longer was angry at others - instead, he would preach them and show them how patient and merciful he was, and that that was a sign of wisdom - putting himself as an example to be followed.

The wise brother wasn't consulted about some issues anymore and nobody in their village was talking about him. Everybody was excited about talking to the new "wise man", the one that was better looking and also talked louder and more than the old one.

The older brother started to feel sad for the younger. "He is so mistaken in using charity in order to gain people's love and attention. He doesn't realize this recognition isn't eternal and one day they will find another hero. Then he won't have any reason to keep doing good actions and anger and envy will take place in his heart again.", and he would cry so much for his younger brother's fate, that his eyes started to get dark circles under them.

One day, the wise man decided to talk to his younger brother about his behavior and the consequences of doing things for vanity not for compassion. The younger man was totally taken by anger and couldn't really listen to his brother's words. "You are jealous of me", he yelled, "because now people love me more than they love you. You wanted to be in my place and now you are getting desperate for their attention and want to get me out of your way. Do you want me to believe that you didn't expect any recognition? Of course you did!"

As the older brother kept trying to bring his younger to reason, the young man was getting angrier and angrier. And, in a moment of impetuosity, he attacked his brother, hitting him and making him lose balance. Unfortunately, they were near a cliff, and his older brother fell into it, becoming seriously injured. Instantly the young man realized what he had done and despair took over him. He went down the cliff to get his brother and couldn't get his brother to wake up. Among tears of deep regret, he put his dear brother on his shoulders and walked to the village, in order to find the old faith-healer that lived there for so many years.

As he got into the village, all people crowed around him, asking themselves what had happened. Tearing apart, the young man cried out loud, " I killed him! I killed my brother! Oh, please, come back, please! I'm so sorry for my pride and vanity!", and all people knew what the fight had been about. Some looked at him with contempt, others with pity, others with shock and all with disapproval.

Getting to the faith-healer's house, the imprudent brother told him what had happened. The faith-healer then, said, "I don't have the medical plants to cure him here. When he fell, a thorn got into his skin and let its poison in him. Unfortunately, it's fatal and I can't cure him."
The young man went into total despair and begged him to help him fix what he had done. The faith-healer, being an old man and having seen all sorts of things in his life, told the desperate man, "I can't cure him, but there is someone that can. But he doesn't live here and you would have to run, fly and swim to get there. Besides, you'd better take fire with you, because it's a very cold and dark land."
"I will do whatever it is necessary", the brother said, "but will there be time to save him?".
"It'll depend only on you. You will have to fly and run to be able to be there, carrying your brother in your arms or on your shoulders, since he can't do it by himself. And you have very, very little time. You will know if you're running out of time because the poison leaves black spots on the person's skin and those spots grow as the poison spreads."
And getting the information on how to get to the other faith-healer, the younger brother went away from the village, carrying his brother on his arms and crying.

Night and day he would walk along the river, that would lead them to their goal. At night, he would make fire and carry it around, so his brother wouldn't freeze. But the spots start to appear and were growing. And he wasn't near the place yet. Then, he decided to run during the day and to fly during the night. To do so, he captured a huge meat eater bird, who he fed with his blood, every end of afternoon, so the bird would always come back and this way he would be able to fly on the bird's back, always feeding him with a little piece of the flesh of his right arm and his blood.

They were going faster now, but the spots were growing faster, too, as his right arm was now getting smaller, being almost 3/4 of its original size. And then pride started to give place to regret and humility, in the younger man's heart, as the pain increased.

One night, the bird started to try to eat pieces of his brother's arm, since his brother had a lot of flesh and he had his arm half the size it was in the beginning of the journey. Then he had to fight the bird. As the bird was huge, he was losing the battle. Then he remembered he had the ability to make fire and he could use it to drive his enemy away ("the enemy that one day was my friend", he thought, ironically). "But, a little fire won't scare it away", the young man thought, " I will have to make it bigger. But how?". That was when he remember having seen once a man swalling oil and fire and spitting a huge fire out of his mouth. He still had some kerosene that he brought to make light and, filling his mouth with it, he spit it in the air and let the fire consume the kerosene in the air. That scared the bird and it flew away but, as he didn't have any experience with this skill, the young man made a mistake and got some fire in his mouth, which still had some kerosene. He then start to spit fire out of himself, getting hurt and hurt. But after a few moments, he learned how to stop spitting fire, even though he could feel it inside of him.

From that night on, he started being able to defend himself and his brother from wild animals and other dangers. But his brother was getting more and more ill. He decided he would have to run faster. And for days, he ran. But after some time, he couldn't run anymore because his feet were hurt. He decided, then, to swim. Putting his brother on his back, he swam for days.

But again, after some time, he couldn't swim anymore and his brother had his body partially black now. The spots had taken over all of his both arms and ears and they were spreading even faster. The younger brother knew that now they were really close to the faith-healer's house, but he was afraid that they wouldn't make it in time to save his brother. They would have to fly now. But faster than before. He, then, had an idea and started crying for the meat-eater bird. The bird, who had been following them in the expectation of their death for tireness, showed up.

The younger brother made his offer to the bird," Bird, I know you want flesh. I can't give you much more of my flesh, but what I have left is strong enought to keep you fed for days. Otherwise we wouldn't have made it until here. So, I want to propose to you a trade: I will give more than half of my arms and keep only enough to have my hands and you'll give me half of your wings, so I can fly."

The bird thought for a while and then moved its head in a negative. But it pointed, with its beak, to his legs. The young man understood. "I can give you half of both of my legs, then, but you'll have to give me half of both your wings". The bird signaled positively. The man let the bird eat part of his arms and legs and, with the fire that never got extinct from inside of him, the blew that on what was left of his arms and legs and melted them together with his body again. After this, he cut half of the birds wings and, blowing fire on his back, he melted the wings with his own blood and flesh.

The young man, then, put his brother on his back and flew. He flew so fast that he got at the hearler's house in within a day, just in time to take his brother to him before the poison took over his brother's heart.

The healer could save the old brother, but couldn't take away the black of his skin. That would be his mark forever. And the younger brother was also marked forever: as the fire wouldn't get out of his body, he had turned into a reddish color. Besides, now he had small arms and legs and had wings. He couldn't live among people anymore. They would kill him for what he looked like now. And now he had a much better heart than before, when beauty still lived outside of him.

The older brother started crying for the sacrifice of his younger one and for his growth, that costed him so much. He didn't want to live among people anymore, because in his mind, it was the false illusion and recognition that had nurtured the vanity in his brother's heart.

The healer, seeing both brothers in suffering for regret and for love for each other, decided to transform them into two different animals that wouldn't see each other anymore. This was so because the view of each other provoked in them such a pain that border madness. So, for them, it was best not to be seen by the other. They would keep in their minds their love and kindness.

The older brother, as he was always kind and sweet and quiet, was transformed into a big and calm bear, which has one partner for life and bears one baby at a time. He would be living into the forest, among the bamboos, which would feed him, since the view of meat would remind him of his brother's sacrifice for him. He would never eat meat again, in respect for his brother's flesh. He became a bear with black arms and ears and round dark circles around his kind eyes, that seemed be aways tearing up. He was called Panda and would be still loved by all people around the world.

The younger brother, for his change of body and personality through suffering, both in flesh and soul, was transformed into an animal that had similarity with no other animal on Earth. He would have wings and fly, and would have legs and arms, so he would be able to walk, and he would spit and blow fire through his mouth and nose, so he could keep protecting himself and the others. For his own sacrifice for his brother in order to protect and save the latter, he became the Dragon, the one that protects.

But, he didn't want recognition anymore. He didn't want to live among the living beings. He wanted to protect people, but didn't want people to know he was really protecting them. He didn't want people to know of his existence. He finally had learned the lesson his brother wanted so much him to learn: humility.

Being so, the healer then made him into an animal that would exist in people's memories, but that nobody would have ever seen. People would know about him, but nobody would ever know if he was imagination or reality. He would live in people's imagination and would protect them without them knowing it was him. His protection to men would be credited to all sorts of other people or entities or animals and nobody would ever thank to him. That would be his redemption for his past of arrogance: to live to protect and serve without being ever recognized for that.

And this way, the Dragon was never seen by anybody else ever again, and it is loved and feared, but nobody is sure of him. His brother, the Panda, with his sweet sad eyes, kept being loved by all.

Ok, this is not a real legend. I have just created it, while I was doing my pedicure and manicure.