The Steward - Part 1

Solomon

Long, long ago an old king presided over the land. I say ‘presided’ as if that implies he was a ruler who kept his subjects on their toes. He was anything but. He didn’t make rules or tell people what to do. He was more like an older relative whose advice and counsel everyone valued. In his land the sun shone, the air smelt sweet, and the water was cool and refreshing. The people laughed, sat around and talked, ate when they were hungry, made love when the time seemed right, and generally enjoyed the pleasures around them. They danced, they sang. They spoke to the stars and the stars spoke to them. They were free and happy.

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But not everyone was happy. The king’s steward, Solomon, was an exception to the general air of contentment. When he gazed across the land he didn’t see happy people, he saw lazy feckless bastards, especially the men. Even though they were much stronger physically, he thought they let their womenfolk walk all over them. As far as Solomon was concerned, those women grew fat and lumpy from sitting around all day chatting to each other while the men went out and gathered sticks for the fire or food for the dinner. But most of the time everyone - men, women, and children - just lolled around in the sun and, in Solomon’s eyes, expected everything to be handed to them for nothing.

As Solomon’s displeasure with this state of affairs grew he began to think that he could do a lot better than the old king. Surely the people themselves would prefer the person at the top to push them, to motivate them to excel and go forward? They might miss the old times for a little while but soon they would forget all about them as a new broom swept away the past.

Solomon confided his thoughts to a few others at the royal court and, before long, most of the king’s officials had come round to his way of thinking. Under Solomon’s leadership they decided to join him in bringing about the ‘new order’, which he had convinced them would be better than the old way. So they ousted the king, and banished him and his retinue to a far-off place. The king was sad at his steward’s treachery but he left his kingdom without a murmur, and accepted his exile with a stoicism that inspired respect, even among those who had ejected him.

When the people heard about the palace coup they were nervous at first. But Solomon sent out his officials to reassure everyone in the land that things would be a lot better than before. From now on men would rule the roost and women and children would help their men in the revitalisation of the kingdom. Instead of lying around doing nothing they would make things happen to improve everyone’s lot.

A new mood of exultation took over. The people thought they were in charge. Whereas once they had gazed up towards the mountain tops and the sky, now their focus shifted downwards. They decided that everything around them had to be tamed. The soil was tilled, animals were subdued and either hunted or domesticated, and the earth was mined for the resources it contained.

Children were taught to defer to, and indeed fear, their elders, especially the men, and most especially the steward and his staff. They were also taught that they must strive to improve themselves and those around them. The means to do this would not be free - like the sunshine or the sea. Instead Solomon came up with a brand new way to get things moving. It had a few different names, but the most widely used was ‘money’.

In contrast to the days of the old king’s endless generosity, money had to be earned. Because not everyone was clever enough to acquire and keep money, some ended up with more than others. Among those were a handful who amassed far more money than they could ever spend. So they lent a little of their surplus, but only to those who could repay it - with interest. A lucky few who met a lender’s strict terms could borrow what they needed and, if they invested it well enough, they too might become wealthy. The rest, the vast majority, scraped together just enough money to eke out a living for themselves, usually by serving those who were smart and rich enough to rise to the top.

Money was a great motivator. Soon people came to believe that it was the only way to get on in life. Money was the key to success. If you had plenty you could do almost anything. But without it life was pretty miserable. Jealousy and greed replaced love and peace in people’s hearts. For those who did not want to gain money through hard graft or clever dealing there was always theft - with or without violence.

Battles and wars became commonplace as lords and rulers fought against each other to gain even greater wealth than they already had. Those with little or no money either aspired to riches, or they dreamt of a better world where they could be happy. But that idyllic haven was not the now-forgotten kingdom their ancestors once enjoyed. In fact, it could not be found in this world at all, but only in what was now called the ‘afterlife’. So people either pined for a better life after death or else they focused on the pleasures that money could buy here and now.

Solomon encouraged this line of thinking. Anything was preferable to having his subjects questioning his regime. Because, even using all his ingenuity, the steward could not make things work the way he thought they should, the way he wanted them to. Under his rule the world was not getting better, it was getting worse. So Solomon kept everyone’s minds occupied with hopes of justice and peace in some far-off future, whether here or in the ‘afterlife’. Heaven or Nirvana was just around the next corner, always tantalisingly out of reach, a bit like the carrot dangling in front of the reluctant donkey.

Meanwhile the exiled king wept as he listened to report after report of the degradation into which his kingdom had sunk. He could only look on in pity as his people descended ever deeper into subjection and heartache. It was so long since he had been among them that most had forgotten him. In fact no one could remember a time before the steward took over. Solomon was the king as far as they were concerned and always had been. So completely had the steward erased all thoughts of the old kingdom from people’s minds that they could not even imagine the possibilities life had to offer.

The old king thought of a way to help his people. He would send someone, not only to remind them of what they had forgotten, but to show them how they could live like that again.

But who would he send?

More in Part 2.