Inspired by a story by Hans Christian Andersen
Princess Lauren was pretty
awesome. Besides being beautiful and rich and powerful like most princesses,
she was very clever and interesting and nice and just about everything you
could want in a ladyfan. That’s why everybody wanted to marry her. And when
everybody in the whole wiggidy wide world wants to marry you, it means you can
afford to be pretty picky when choosing a husband. Which is why Princess Lauren
of Someplace Very Far Away decided to set a challenge for her prospective
suitors. Most fellows, as you are probably aware, will give a lady a diamond
ring when they ask her to marry them. But Lauren had forty-seven diamond rings,
so she wanted something else. She wanted a treasure she had never seen before.
So she decreed that any man who could bring her such a treasure would win her
hand…the rest of her, too, but “win her hand” is an old expression
meaning…well, never mind, you get the idea.
Of the many,
many, many, many people who thought they had a shot at marrying the princess
were three brothers. Their father was just a humble woodchopper, but he did own
two prized possessions of great value and he gave these to his two eldest sons
in the hopes that it would win them the hand (remember from before?) of the
fair princess. To his eldest son, Manfred, he gave a solid silver shoehorn,
which is not something you see every day. To his middle son, Maurice, he gave a
set of silk shoelaces with solid gold aglets (an “aglet” is the hard tip on the
end of a shoelace), which is something else you don’t see every day. He also
lent them his two horses and wished them good luck on their quest.
Of course, this
would all be very well and good, but sharp-eyed readers may notice that I said
there were three brothers. The
youngest, Jack was…what’s a nice way of putting this…a dullard. The light of
his mind was sort of dim, if you see what I mean. Not stupid, necessarily. Not
the kind of stupid where you eat soap and mix up your pants and your shirt and
walk into a door over and over again cuz you can’t figure out how to turn the
knob or even the kind of stupid where you vote for a third party candidate. No,
he was just a little bit…off.
For these
reasons, his father thought Jack had no chance of impressing the princess, so
he didn’t give him a darn thing. But Jack was determined that he would marry
the princess, so he saddled up his pig (he didn’t have a horse) and set off on
the road to the palace. Unfortunately, dullard that he was, he forgot about the
princess’s challenge to bring her a treasure she had never seen before. Still,
ever the optimist, he and his pig, Trevor, went off on their quest.
Being a pig and
not a horse, Trevor moved rather slower than Manfred’s or Maurice’s steeds. But
Jack didn’t mind, as he enjoyed slow, leisurely trips through the woods. In
fact, if he really wanted to get there quickly, he would have gotten off the
pig and simply walked to the castle, but he was, as you may have heard
somewhere before, a dullard, so this never occurred to him. And it’s just as
well, because if he had been going any faster, he might have missed the
wonderful things he saw.
First he saw a
nest full of eggs hatching. He saw the little nestlings breaking out of their
shells and chirping for food. Jack felt blessed to have witnessed this miracle
of nature. Just then, a piece of eggshell fell from the tree and Jack caught it
and put it in his pocket then he and Trevor went on their way.
Next he saw a
snake rubbing its head against a tree root. Then he slid out of his old skin as
smooth as water, leaving the discarded skin behind. Jack thought it was pretty
neat so he picked it up and put it in his pocket with the eggshell.
Finally, when he
was really quite near the castle, he saw a piece of string someone had dropped.
For reasons best known to himself, he thought this too was worthy of
preservation, so he added it to the contents of his pocket and made his way to
the castle.
Several hours
earlier, his brothers had come to the castle and presented their treasures to
the princess. The silver shoehorn sparkled in the light, but the princess had
seven of them. The silk shoelaces with golden aglets were very fine, but the
princess was actually wearing a pair at that very moment. They were just
leaving in defeat when they saw their brother, Jack, and his pig, Trevor,
riding up to the castle.
“How’d it go?”
asked Jack, stupidly.
“She didn’t
accept either of our gifts,” said Manfred.
“Sorry about
that. Well, maybe she’ll like what I have for her.” So saying, he handed
Trevor’s reins to Maurice and went in to see the princess.
“So, what do you
have for me?” asked the princess, who after days and days of this was getting
pretty bored.
“I have, not
one, but three gifts for your most
beautiful of majesties.”
“Three? Let’s
see them.” And Jack took from his pocket the fragment of eggshell. Princess
Lauren looked at it as if expecting it to explode or something. “Is this it? An
eggshell?”
“Yes!” said Jack
enthusiastically.
“How is an
eggshell a treasure?”
“It may not be
worth much gold, but not long ago this tiny fragment of shell was the most
important thing in the world to a mother bird. And as I passed beneath her
nest, it hatched, and the miracle of new life was born out of this
insignificant little fragment. Some day that baby bird will grow so big that
his beak won’t even fit in this fragment of shell, but he used to be so small
that he could live inside it. If you don’t find that remarkable, then it’s no wonder you’re so hard to impress.”
Princess Lauren
was intrigued by what Jack was saying and asked to see the next treasure. She
recoiled slightly at the sight of the snake skin, but then Jack pointed out the
intricate patterns of the indentations of the snake’s scales. The marvel of
design that had created the snake and the beauty of its movements as it slid
like a liquid from this discarded skin. Princess Lauren was beginning to see
things in a new light.
Finally Jack
showed her the string. He had no speech about the marvel of nature or the
miracle of life, of course. “But imagine,” he said, “that before it was
garbage, this was a useful piece of string. Maybe someone had tied up a
birthday gift with it, or a bundle of sticks to sell for kindling, or maybe a
young man tied it around his finger to remind him that he had a date with his sweetie.
This string may have had a long and exciting life before it was discarded or
lost or whatever happened to it when I rescued it from the country road.”
Princess Lauren
just stared at Jack. For days and days, men from all over her kingdom had shown
her gold, diamonds, silver, emeralds, platinum, rubies, and other precious
stones and metals. But here was a man who saw the world as something beautiful,
with magic all around and wonderful stories hidden behind every commonplace
thing. She had asked someone to show her a treasure she had never seen before,
and it was clear to her that Jack had done just that.
Which is howcome
Jack the Dullard became Jack the Prince when he married the princess and
together lived happily ever after, because they never forgot that there is
treasure all around and beauty everywhere we look…if we know how to find it.