Saturday, September 12, 2009

Maiden Third


Once upon a time, there was a young girl who loved her father very much. She was a beautiful young girl with a free spirit. She was vivacious, becoming, astute, and pleasing. She was wilful and passionate, strong and affectionate.
She also had a perversity of nature that would wish to attempt a feat the moment it was forbidden.
Her father was a strong man with a will of iron. He was just, and he loved her. He held very strongly to high ideals that he could argue back to the Holy Book itself, and its inerrability was his vanguard. He was immoveable. To lower that guard was to deny the Book itself, and he held his ideals with the passion of a Crusader.
She wanted only to be free. She wanted to stretch her wings and let the current lift her. She wanted to be drawn, and not pressed; she wanted to be hungered, not harried. She wanted to be motivated by love, not duty.
As for her father, his duty was his love, and his love was his duty. He could not separate the two. They were one and the same to him.
He believed that there was enmity in the heart of every man, and that the laying down of the law would reveal the rebellion.
So he laid down the law for his daughter and unveiled her rebellion. Then he took it to task and attempted to deal with it.
She fought and refused to submit. She could not see that love could come after duty, and he refused to acknowledge love without obedience.
She fled his home and continued her life away. He watched with growing alarm as her love and her passion led her again and again to the edge of the precipice of morality.
Wild as it was, her heart was a faithful one, and she clung to the faith of her childhood. Then with all the intense passion of her heart, she fell in love with a young man that abused her trust.
In despair, her father tried again and again to redeem her from her faults. He repeatedly laid down the principles, and he continued to encounter her rebellion.
She would not trust him, and he would not relent. She felt stifled, and he desperately wanted her to see what he saw. The battle of wills was always foremost. He would not discuss or renege any of his ideals unless she submitted her will, and she would not give her will to be driven where it could have been led. Each refused to die. They disdained to lay down arms and surrender, for each held the right. They were constantly at an impasse, and finally each broke the heart of the other.