1. Beginnings

Let me tell you a story. It’s a long story, though. It’s going to be told in more than one part because you probably won’t be able to hear all of it today. It’s a beautiful story, but it’s also a sad story. The good thing, though, is that the story is not actually over, and a happy ending is very possible. Actually, the happy ending is preferred, and you will find out that you have a say in how it ends.Let me tell you a story. It’s a long story, though. It’s going to be told in more than one part because you probably won’t be able to hear all of it today. It’s a beautiful story, but it’s also a sad story. The good thing, though, is that the story is not actually over, and a happy ending is very possible. Actually, the happy ending is preferred, and you will find out that you have a say in how it ends.Once upon a time, there was a King. Yes, many stories start this way. There was a King who had strange power. I will not call this power ‘magic’, because he wasn’t magical. A magician is someone who uses magic or a supernatural force, but he is using a force or power that is not his own. He is channeling, if you will, something that is "not his own". That is not the case with this King.  This was not an ordinary King. His power was his own. He was not wielding it from some other place, it was something totally in him.This King was content. Yes, a lot of people would not be content to live alone, but this King was. He was, quite simply, complete. Satisfied. Whole. Perfect. Again, complete.There are aspects of this King that none of us have really ever understood. He was (and is) somehow in communion with himself. He had a presence that was beyond his being. His spirit, his breath, or life-force, and his mind seemed to be alive, too. It was like he was interacting sufficiently within himself. He was in his own existence and with the ability to make or do whatever he wanted. Yet, he did not need anything. Things were just fine on his own.As we said, though, this is not just any king. This King is a special king. He has immense power, and he is supremely good. He is  a scientist. He is also an engineer. He is a musician and an artist; a poet and a painter. Everything about him is good. In fact, quite literally, goodness is what he is. He is truly perfect. Nothing evil exists in him. It is like light and dark. The two cannot be in the same spot at the same time. In the same way, It is actually against his nature for something impure to be in him - his very being-ness, for lack of a better word. This is important in our tale, because some later did not understand this about him.It was mentioned that this King had no need for anyone. This is true. yet, in him, was a pure love. Love is always directed outwardly. The purest love is a love that is a sacrifice of oneself for the sake of another. Think about it today, for example, how one might consider it foolish to have children. There is much pain in childbirth, there is probably even more in child-rearing. So much is given up for the child by the parents: intimacy, time, finances, and freedom. Many other things are given up or severely limited because of a child. They are given up, in spite of knowing that the child may not understand or appreciate what was given up until the child is grown, and even then, the child might still not comprehend the amount of sacrifice given for him. Yet, parents still have children, and they have them because they have love. This is perhaps the spirit of the King when he decided that he would have children as well. Children that he would make and adopt to himself.So, the King makes a place for these people whom he makes. For these people, the King somehow made the earth and water and all the elements. He made sky and space, light and dark, fish and fowl. Nobody knows how he did it, but he did it. He not only just did it, but he did it specifically for these people. These people are his own work, his own handiwork, if you please. He envisioned them in his mind, he rationalised their existence, and he breathed into them life. He created a whole world for them, actually. He brought them toys, but toys on a greater level than our toys today. Today you might receive a stuffed animal as a gift, but this King gave them real animals. They were harmless. He even let the people name the animals. You, the reader, might receive a stuffed bear and be told that it is a bear. For those people, however, they would not have even known it was a bear! They got to name it bear, and that bear was exclusively theirs. The desire of the King was the people, and for the people he quite literally gave the whole world.