Little Rituals

On the fence surrounding the site of a new development at the corner of Sherbourne and Gerrard: Mural of animals startled to find themselves in the 'hood. (Artwork by Nick Sweetman for Oben Flats)

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One of the very first things I found on the Internet was a "do your own Tarot" site called Hollywood Tarot. If you've clicked through, you can tell by what's on the cards that the site is - by Internet measure - ancient beyond reckoning. But, it's still up and kept running by the two women who first built it twenty years ago because, I imagine, enough people, including me, visit to keep their traffic numbers interesting.

How often do I visit? Every day. Why on earth do I go there every day? Because it's amusing to select the one card sound bite and see what my card of the day is.

I don't use the card I draw to set my expectations or attitude for the day or anything like that. I just enjoy the randomness.

That said, I find the glosses on the meanings of the cards in Hollywood Tarot to be flip and unreliable. So, to get a more learned interpretation of the meaningless card, I go to this site, also incredibly long in the tooth as sites on the Internet go.

I've done this almost every day for at least the last fifteen years.

Seriously.

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Continued from last week....

The ruler of a small and pleasant realm had spent the best part of the past year working with other rulers in the kingdom to prepare a proposal for a great quest.

The quest was one of the most elaborate ever conceived. The ruler had, at the bidding of her Emperor, crammed more and more labours into the quest. She grew to doubt that anyone would be able to complete it.

But, as with children and low-end fixer-uppers, the more effort required the more fond one grows of a project. Though misshapen and held together by wishing, the quest became beautiful in the eyes of our friend the ruler.

When the ruler learned that the GLG - the Goose the Lays the Golden Egg - had nested in her quest, she feared the worst. The GLG had been causing havoc in the kingdom for months. It would pop up in one spot, dazzle and exhaust all who gazed upon it, disappear and then reappear somewhere else to suck the life out of some other conversation.

Our friend the ruler was scheduled on Wednesday to take her quest proposal to the Scrutiny Council, where the Greatest Ruler and all the Emperors sat at a table too big for the room and chewed things over. 

In the Great Scrutiny Chamber, the Greatest Ruler and all the Emperors squeeze past one another to fetch snacks and sandwiches from the sideboard at the same time that selected Emperors describe their quests.

It is important to the ritual that the Emperors who chew act as if they are paying no attention to the Emperor who speaks. 

When an Emperor finishes speaking, if there is no sound other than that of chewing, then the quest proposal is successful and may proceed.

The peril the GLG brought to the ruler's quest was, once the chewing Emperors detected its presence, they would spit the food out of their mouths, all start talking at once and fall spent to the ground when all the oxygen was gone. Our friend the ruler had seen this many times before.

But, through some magic unknown to the ruler, the GLG came to the table covered in green camouflage. The deception worked. The chewing Emperors' collective gaze never rose from their plates as the ruler's Emperor spoke of the quest. 

And, when that was done, there was nothing but the sound of chewing.

Wait a minute. Is that a cockroach?

Today's moral: "When you have no idea how things will turn out, don't fear the worst; just enjoy the randomness."

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen