The Broken Statue, was it broken for a Reason?
The sculptor had to fix the statue, but he could not
There was a broken statue of a king that was in a forgotten area of the park. No one knew the name of the king, it was erected for or the reason, he was to be remembered. Children played around the cracked marble statue, while the birds sat on it. One day, the new Mayor of the town arrived at the park. He was going to spruce up the city, and he was starting with the park.
The executives, the city board members, and the works' contractor followed the Mayor around the park as he pointed at certain features to be removed and spots where new ones could be placed. He came upon the badly cracked statue, it was split in the middle. It looked as if the statue was deliberately divided into two parts, or like it was struck by a bolt of lightning right through the middle.
“Now, this statue looks magnificent, if only it was not split into two parts. I remember this statue as a child. My father brought me to this park, and he told me the story of the King. This King was a just and humble ruler, but before that he was a tyrant. It was only after he lost his eldest son to cholera, that he changed and became a better man and ruler. He realized that power was not everything in the world. Get the sculptor to repair this statue,” said the Mayor, with a crafty smile.
The next morning, a sculptor came to the park and started work on the statue. He was chiselling and banging the statue in all directions to get both the halves to join. The babies in perambulators with their mothers and nurses could not sleep. The children and the dogs, as well as the birds, continued their play uninterrupted by the noise.
For two whole days, the sculptor tried to get both halves of the statue together, but he did not succeed. The man gave up and went to the Mayor.
“I have tried to put both halves of the statue together, but I could not do it. I push both halves together and they stick. However, after ten minutes the statue divides,” said the sculptor, exhausted.
“Now, that was something I knew would happen. The King had the statue divided as a sign of his humility, and it was always his wish, that the statue remained that way. I can now see that the King is making sure that his wish is being observed from beyond.”
The broken statue of the good King, who used to be a tyrant stayed that way, as a mark of his humility, for the world to see and for generations to know that the best way to lead is by being a humble leader.
Writer’s note: This short story was inspired by a broken statue I saw in a photograph of the Edith Stein Memorial.
Perhaps a king Midas. All that glitters is not gold. That’s what we’re told, from tales of woe.