The Chess Game

A long time ago, when I was quite beautiful and had a sharp mind, I was seeing a young man just to spend some time.

He was slim, average looking, studious and religious.  Not my type.  He liked to play chess, and fancied himself a good player.

I was learning the game.  My ex husband had been a ranked player and had taught it to me.  One day he beat me in a few swift moves and jumped up from the table to proclaim Fools Mate!  He shouted for his mother and announced his big win to his family.

As I hardly knew the game, this was not such a great achievement.  I felt a bit hurt, and embarrassed.

Now that we were divorcing, I was living alone and had been on a few dates with this poor fellow.  Let’s call him Joe.

We whittled away some time playing chess.  I was still perfecting my game, but could now hold my own.  We sat in my dining room, with the chess board between us.  Ready for game 2:  I was plotting for a kill.

In several swift moves I put him away.  Fools Mate!

I’ve never done that before!  I knew full well how the words cut his ego.

He went home, and I didn’t see him for a few days.

One day about a week later, Joe knocked on my door.  I was surprised to see him, but disappointed.  When he told me he would not be seeing me anymore, I was dispassionate.

It was preferable to having to break up with him.  Good. I thought, starting to close the door.

But he wasn’t done.  He wanted a reaction.  He told me he had planned his life around me.  I was the center of his life and his future and now he was done.  He was emotional and upset.  All this over a chess game.

I was getting bored.

You’re breaking up with me?

Yes!

Ok.  I tried to close the door.

But more protestations of how I would have been the center of his life.

He had no idea it would never have gone that far.

I tried to look sad, disappointed.

You’re breaking up with me?

Yes!

This time I said nothing.

He finally left.

I shut the door.

Never thought of him again.

But I hate that game.

Romancing the Earth

Don’t just live in the world.

Make Love to it.

Approach it gently, care for it.  Listen to it’s woes and hold its hand.

Treat it like a lover.

Caress each new day as you wake up.

You are a precious child of the universe.

Look upon each new day with wonder.

See every day as a new gift!

Open it and share it with others.

You have a new chance today.

You can soothe a savage breast.

Be a song in someone’s heart!

Love not only your own children and kin.

Treat your world like your family.

For as Jesus said to his disciples as he planned to leave this earth, ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’

He was leaving you a gift!

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“Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast.” 

“To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.”

_ British poet William Congreve

No Good Deed

Today March 2 is the Feast day of Charles the Good, or Charles I Count of Flanders (now Belgium).

In a manner reminiscent of or perhaps foreshadowing the ‘meddlesome priest’ Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles the Good was hacked to death by medieval knights as he knelt in prayer.  On March 2 1127 he was murdered in the church of St Donatian.  Oddly, the Good Count’s father had also been assassinated in church.

Perhaps it was more common than realized for leaders to meet their end in church back in the Middle Ages, at a place where they went in peace and without protection.  The evil and powerful Erembald family conspired to murder the Good Count because he saw to it the people had bread to eat and a fair price to pay for it.  The Erembald’s were losing profits and their family fortune and influence were threatened by the Good Count’s rulership.

If you see a parallel to current times, this is because history has a tendency to repeat itself.

The lambs continue to be slain in church to this day, and some unscrupulous rich families continue to profit off the poor.  The champions of the people continue to pay with their lives, and their character assassinated by the evil conspiracies.

As no good deed continues to go unpunished, it is a rare soul who would stand up for the underprivileged.

Raise your glass then in appreciation for all the saints on this Feast Day of Charles the Good who was formally beatified in 1882.