True Grit

The last time I Saw PIE-in-the- Skye:
Monk Anselmo one day was telling his pupils of some personages from antiquity. The story made such impact on me and I shall merely quote him from memory.
Etruscans, or some other tribe I cannot exactly remember which, before Rome became a republic had something of a reputation. It was simply in this: the people were amenable to rule.  A series of kings who belonged to a family of brigands had ruled them and before the last king was deposed the tribe had learned to rob. And rob well they did. Then they tried rule of the law. It also seemed to work for a while and then it became somewhat similar to the way democracies work at present. “ We must work with consensus.” So they presented their case before public assembly and put to vote. Before the aristocrats wanted to grab public lands all they did was bribe the good for nothing citizens who never stopped stealing from each other or doing some mischief in order to feather their own nest. They took the money and said their support was theirs. The party of Aristocrats prospered and they elected one as the king by popular vote. They soon passed a law making his blood line as hereditary kings.
Thus King Pennypincher ruled the tribe but before he could father a son to pass on his throne he was out hunting. His horse tripped on a loose pebble and fell headlong into a ravine. Pennypincher broke his skull and died.
Monk Anselmo said, “Of what is a pebble?”
“God’s instrument, of course!” I couldn’t help telling him. The monk looked at me questioningly and I said,” Oh holy monk I suffer from kidney stones. I die daily. God put it there to chastise me.”
Monk Anselmo later asked me if I believed in hell. I was emphatic. “ No! How can there be a worse hell than this?”
On recalling it I must say we suffer only as human beings, and as we are part of a material world, a grit has its purpose as any blade of grass. It doesn’t matter whose purpose it serves as much as I suffer or benefit from it.
benny

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