Long story short…  Comic isn’t done on time… Enjoy this sketch in the mean time.

So I’ve been impressed upon to regale you good people with some interesting wit and campy colloquialisms.  And so… of course… I can’t think of anything.  My bestest friend Jarrod should know me better than to ask me to be funny, as soon as you shine that spotlight on me it shuts off.  So how about a special treat, something new… And now for something Completely Different…

I have always been a fan of Fables and Fairy Tales.  Any old story with a moral at the end is just dandy by me.  A few months ago Jarrod dropped thi image, this metaphor for those who carry.  I was brilliant and his visual explanation of it was as well.  And it plays out in this story… This is a fable, and a fanciful tale, I hope you enjoy it.

The Burden and the Bright Young Girl
A Fable by Joshua D. Ray
Concept by Jarrod DePugh and Joshua Ray

A bright little girl sat alone in the sand.
She thought of nothing but toys and play.
She knew nothing of life in the wide world
And her heart was kind and willing to help.

Then one day something happened
A boy stood before her with a bag on his back
He was huffing and puffing, his knees were shaking
She took him softly by the hand and smiled

“Let me help you with your burden” she said
And without another word she slipped the pack on
It was heavier than it looked, but she was stronger than she looked.
“I will carry this for you until we reach your mother’s”

So they started down the path together.
Miles fell behind her as she faced forward and walked.
Some ways down the road she looked back
The boy was gone
“I wonder where he has gone” She queried.
“Oh well, I suppose I shall carry his burden until I see him again.”

Yes it’s true perhaps she should have put it down.
But she did as a kind child would do, she would not leave the bag on the ground.
So she faced forward down the road and began walking again.
And mile by mile the burden felt lighter as her legs grew under her.

One day she met a girl along the road with a big sack of potatoes.
She was so small a girl; she could do nothing but drag them slow behind her.
The bright girl said soothingly “Little Girl won’t you let me help”
She had the girl stack the potatoes on the boy’s bag and along they went.

The bright girl’s feet dug grooves in the sand as she walked the road.
But the little girl took to playing among the fields of heather as little girls are wont to do
And the bright young girl found she was alone again, her pack now doubled.
“The little girl will return soon” she thought, and soon she had forgotten all about the potatoes.

Just then a slick greasy man stood in her way with a load of bricks on his back.
Such a show he put on for the girl, such a display that she felt pity for him.
She took the load of bricks, on the potatoes, on the bag, and went on her way.
No thanks were spoken and the man soon left her to take his daily drink.

So she trudged down the road.  Still smiling, even singing.
And as she walked and sang her legs grew under her.  They grew and grew.
And so it went as she walked, and time and again she met people with burdens.
Some of them kind, some of them lazy, some of them sly tricksters

But she took each burden upon her, without a frown or a moan.
And she walked still with a smile and a song in her heart.
And the years went by this way, and her legs grew longer.
She was no longer a bright girl, but a bright young woman.

Her burden has grown to a size of old legends.
As high as a mountain it was, and as wide as a hamlet
And still the bright woman walked, and sang her song
But her feet were so tired, her legs so strained to breaking.

But she paid it no mind, she imagined the burden was light, her shoulders unbent
And people who saw her knew only the sight of her legs and feet.
For the burden had grown so great that it covered her flowing locks
It covered her face, her eyes, nearly all but her socks.

And some would come to her and ask her to lay it down.
“Please bright girl” they would say.  “You bend your back too much.”
But she would smile beneath the sacks, and loads, and piles of junk.
“If I do not carry these things, then who will?  And I mind it less than it seems.”

So she would happily go on her way, ignoring the helpful pleas.
She still offered her strong legs to anyone with a burden to bear
And some still piled it on, some even laughed and jeered
But some tried to help her carry it, though she protested kindly.

She told them she didn’t mind the burden, that it was hers alone.
But some of them heard the creak in her knees, the grinding of her worn gears.
And still the road wound round and again and up hill and down she went.
And the helpful voices faded behind on the road as she went.

One day, after long years, she saw a man lying in the road.
She nearly stepped on his head as he laid there, her eyes blocked by sacks and bricks.
He awoke with a start; he must have been asleep a long time.
“Well you’re a lovely sight to wake to bright lady, but I wonder what’s been done with the sun.”

“I am sorry” she replied.  “But my pack has overshadowed you.”
“I did not see you myself till you were beneath my feet.”
He cleared the sleep from his eyes and gazed at her a long time it seemed.
So many had failed to notice it, but under the entire burden she had grown.

And grown she had into a lovely lady of breeding, eyes sparkling above a bright smile.
The man had seen something nobody had seen in many years and he was taken.
“My but why is such a lovely lady carrying so heavy a load?” he asked
“Surely you must chafe under such a burden, why not let me help you?”

As she had many times she politely refused and continued on her way.
But the man scrambled to his feet and followed along with her.
“If you won’t let me help, or just put it down, won’t you tell me of your burden?”
And so as they walked the miles she recounted the tale to him in all detail.

She had to admit she liked the company of the man.  His eyes were kind as his words
But she waited and waited for him to go off the path and leave, as many were wont to do.
But still he scampered along beside her, offering a smile and a song or two.
And he made the burden seem a little lighter, and her mind stayed distracted awhile.

Many times she would look behind to see if he still followed behind.
And each time still he was there, often silently watching her endless trudging.
After many days he deigned to ask her once more for good measure.
“Why not lay this burden down bright lady, you carry it without need.”

Frustration came to her voice as she told him she’d have none of this.
“It is my responsibility, I have promised to bear these things and so I shall.”
For she was still the kind girl, full of sympathy and strength he could not understand
“I ask you good sir to go on your way, I have done my duty long with out you, and long without you I shall again.”

So tearfully the man climbed a nearby hill and disappeared over it.
The bight lady was sad to see him go but she believed it for the best
And she head off down the road again, but she thought of what he said.
And while she would not lay the burden down, she longed for the journeys end as a single tear escaped from the corner of her eye.

And the road went on again, and the days fell off the calendar and the burden ached.
Till one day she nearly fell, she nearly lost her footing and plummeted down.
For the road had ended before her, and she had no direction to face towards.
She looked down at her feet, bruised and cracked and worn and aching.

And she felt the weight now more than ever, so tired was she at the roads end.
But there was no destination here for her, no place to lay her burden down.
And the years built up behind her added their weight to the her back
And she fell down on her knees at the roads end and sobbed with flowing tears

Then so quick she barely noticed she felt an arm around her.
And she was lifted to her feet again with a heavy grunt and groan.
And then she heard the voice so familiar say so softly in her ear.
“So what now bright lady, you are at the roads end?”

It was the kind man who walked longest with her and she smiled through the tears.
At a distance he had followed her through the last few years.
Always staying just out of sight but never losing her direction.
He had followed knowing where the road ended, and he waited many days.

But now she was there where he had once stood before and he queried her again.
“Bright lady wont you lay the burden down, you’ve nowhere left to take it.”
“No way forward and you can’t go back, so won’t you finally just release it?”
He smiled to her as best he could muster and hoped she would understand.

The bright woman looked back down the long road behind, and into the chasm below.
There was nothing else she supposed to do, no other option there to find.
She sighed long and hard and her heart shuddered deeply, fear and doubt assailed.
Then all at once she laid it down, the burden of all her years.

And all at once it disappeared as it fell clattering down the abyss.
And all at once it was gone forever and never again.
And she stood upright for the first time in years and an age
And she stretched and cricked and cracked and settled in.

And the man sighed in relief, he finally saw what he knew was true
What he had seen just a glimpse of that day asleep on the road
The hope that had kept him following her trail down the long road
The belief that he knew that under that burden was something he’d never seen

And sure as he stood there two wings unfurled before him in all their glory.
They grew from the back of the bright young lady, as they had for years now
But nobody had ever seen the wings; she had never felt the wind roll through them.
They were crushed beneath the packs and sacks and bricks and sundry items.

And her toes stretched to find the ground beneath them.
But the wings held her aloft now, shining in the sun she had not seen in so long
A single feather fluttered down to land in the kind man’s hand.
And she smiled at him again; her eyes welled with the light of many days.

And he pulled from out of his pocket a feather just like the other.
And a tear rolled down his face so happy was he to know he had not been wrong.
For she had left the other lying on his cheek on the day that they had met
And he followed fast behind her from then on just waiting for the roads end.

“The burden was so much more than I had ever known” She said with a tear
“Had I set it down years ago I could have seen these wings had grown.”
“So many miles are behind me now, so many wasted days gone by.”
“But all the while beneath my burden were wings to make me fly.”

She turned her eyes upward now, the sky the gift she could now have
She took the kind man by the hand and together they rose into the air.
And from way up high they looked upon the miles of the road
So small it seemed now that their feet need never touch the ground again.

Moral:
If you never put a burden down, even for the noblest of reasons, you’ll never know how truly heavy it is or what you’ve become beneath it.

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