THE MAGIC GLASSES
Once upon a time in a kingdom far
away a prince was born to a king and queen. The palace was filled
with love for the prince. One day the clouds grew dark and a terrible
war with bitter fighting came to the kingdom. The little prince saw
the war breaking out in first one place and then the other, so that
often he couldn't even tell which side was which. Finally he became
so sad, confused and afraid that he stopped talking and sharing, and
was always by himself in order to make it through each day.
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The queen told the
little prince that if he would only wear magic glasses she
had, he would feel better; she put the magic glasses on him,
letting him know that his eyes needed to be protected from
the war and demanding that he wear them at all times.
However, when the prince went around to the king, the king
would throw away those glasses saying that his glasses could
protect the prince, not the queen's glasses, and that the
powerful glasses strength were what the boy should wear in
order to see better and get rid of his sadness. The poor
prince seemed always to be changing glasses - first wearing
those from the king, then having to change into the queen's
glasses when she was around. The fighting over the glasses
went on all the time, and to tell the truth, the prince
found it very difficult to see through either pair of
glasses. Whenever he had them on and looked around, the
world looked dark and gloomy - all black and red. Sometimes
the prince wore both sets of glasses at once, and this
really caused the world to appear scary and
strange. |
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Because the little prince
spent so much time changing from one pair of glasses to another and
trying to remember which pair he should be wearing, he had trouble
learning, growing, and making friends. He became lonelier and even
more withdrawn, and deep within him was a longing that he couldn't
explain. One day he was in the palace garden trying to look at the
trees and flowers. As usual, he was having trouble seeing where he
was going because of the glasses; on this particular day he had both
sets of glasses on. Suddenly he heard a tiny giggle. As he tried to
locate the sound, the giggle turned into a louder laugh, but because
of the glasses, the poor prince could not see where it was coming
from. Not far from him foot was a another boy holding his stomach in
laughter as seeing this strange sight of a prince wearing two sets of
thick, cloudy glasses. The more the boy giggle, the more angry the
prince became.
"Who's that laughing at me?" he
cried.
"It's me!" replied a voice near
the ground.
"Where are you? Show yourself this very minute!" commanded the prince, trying to sound as royal as possible."I'm right here in front of you,"
said the boy. "If you would only take off those glasses, you could
easily see me!"
"But I can't!" said the prince
sadly. "I have to wear at least one pair all the time, and sometimes
two! The king and queen have said so!"
"What is it like when you look
through them?" asked the boy.
"Well, it doesn't look good,"
replied the prince. "It looks ugly and sad and angry."
"The world is really not like
that," said the boy, who was no longer laughing. "It's time you
realized you have a choice. You may keep wearing the glasses, or you
may take them off. Why don't you try taking them off and looking at
the world as others sees it? Then you can decide whether you want to
put them back on again or not."
The prince was a little afraid to
take off the glasses; recalling his parents demanding over and over
that he war them because they said so. But he really wanted to be
able to see where he was headed, too, so he removed the glasses.
Turning his head from side to side, he beheld the beauty of the
garden with its rainbow of colors, and was filled with joy. Looking
ahead he saw the smiling face of the boy.
"The choice is yours now," said
the boy. "You really don't need glasses at all. Your eyes are the
best of anyone around, and it would seem silly to wear glasses that
make the world look different than it really is."
Nobody had ever talked to the
little prince in that way before, and he thought about what the boy
had said. Then he knew: he did have a choice! He wanted from that day
forward to see the world without those glasses! The prince and his
new friend talked and talked after that about life, and seeing, and
the beauty that was all around.
The king and queen, of course,
very hopping mad that the boy no longer wore their glasses, and
demanded that he put them on again at once. But the prince refuses;
he could see in a different way now and said that his vision was
perfectly fine. He told them that he was able to look at the war and
confusion in the kingdom in a new way which wasn't so scary, and he
enjoyed seeing all the colors and the beauty around him. The boy
helped the prince realize that his world was not so full of conflict
and doubt as he had feared before; that he was free to make new
friends and to learn and to grow as he was intended to do. When the
prince grew to be a man and became king himself, he ruled the kingdom
in a very different way than his parents had.
And he made sure that he never
wore glasses that he didn't need.
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Enjoy this story and
activities in the storybook The Magic Glasses and Other
Stories and Activities for Children of Divorce and
Separation.
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