介绍:
There was sputtering and sizzling as the flames played under the pan. This was the tallow candle's cradle, and out of the warm cradle slipped the candle - perfectly shaped, all of a piece, shiny white and slender. It was formed in a way that made everyone who laid eyes on it believe that it must promise a bright and glorious future. Indeed, it was destined to keep that promise and fulfill their expectations.
The sheep - a pretty little sheep - was the candle's mother, and the melting pot was its father. From its mother, it had inherited its dazzling white body and an intuitive underdtanding of life; but from its father, it had acquired the desire for the blazing fire that would eventually reach its very core and "shine the light" for it in life.
That is how it had been made and how it cast itself, with the best and brightest of hopes, into life. Here it met an amazing number of fellow creatures with whom it had dealings, since it desired to get to know life and thus perhaps find the most suitable niche for itself. But the candle saw the world in too benevolent a light, while the world only cared about itself and not about the tallow candle at all. The world was unable to understand the true nature of the candle, so it tried to use it to its own advantange and handled the candle improperly. Black fingers made bigger and bigger spots on the white color of innocence, which little by little totally disappeared, to be covered with the filth of an ouside world that had been far too harsh and come much closer than the candle could bear, since it had been unable to distinguish between the pure and the impure - but deep inside, it was still innocent and unspoiled.
That is when the false friends realized that they could not reach its innermost part. In anger, they threw away the candle, considering it a useless thing.
The outer black layer kept away everybody good - they were afraid of becoming contaminated by the black color, of getting spots on themselves, so they kept a distance.
Now, the poor tallow candle was lonely, ababdoned, and at its wit's end. It felt cast off by what was good and discovered that it had been nothing but a blind tool used to advance what was bad. It felt so terribly sad because it had lived its life without purpose - perhaps it had even tarnished some good things by its presence. It could not grasp why and to what end it had been created, why it was put on this Earth where it might destroy itself and even others.
More and more, increasingly deeply, it pondered the situation, but the more it thought, the greater its depondency, since it could not find anything good at all, no real meaning for itself - or see the purpose it had been given at birth. It was as if the black layer had also thrown a veil over its eyes.
That was when it met a small flame, a tinderbox,. The tinderbox knew the light better than the tallow candle knew itself, for the tinderbox saw everything so clearly - right through the outer layer, and inside it found so much good. Therefore, it went closer, and bright hopes emerged in the candle. It lit up, and its heart melted.
The flame shone brightly - like a wedding torch of joy. Everything became bright and clear, and it showed the way for those in its company, its true friends - and helped by the light, they could now successfully seek truth.
The body, too was strong enough to nurture and support the burning flame. Like the beginning of new life, one round and plump drop after the other rolled down the candle, covering the filth of the past.
This was not only the bodily, but also spritual gain of the marriage.
The tallow candle had found its true place in life - and proved that a true light shone for a long time, spreading joy for itself and its fellow creatures.
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