"One day even the gods will be amazed by you."
To keep Alex on the path for greatness Alex's dad ensured that Alex would never encounter any of the bad things in life. He could never let his son feel pain. He had to protect him just as much as he had to nurture him.
Alex loved the outdoors, and his nanny loved to take him out into the garden. They would go into the garden and Alex would marvel at the beauty of nature. At such a young age he already had a great appreciation for our world and the life in it. Not many four year-olds can even sit still, and they especially couldn't meditate like Alex would. But he wasn't aware he was meditating. To him he was just having a good time.
Alex was a curious child who needed knowledge to be happy. One day his father had his nanny take him downtown to experience city life for the first time. But he made the nanny swear that she would protect Alex from anything that could cause him harm.
Young Alex was blown away by the city. He hadn't known life could be like this. His nanny had even gotten him an ice cream cone, and many good times were had.
The day turned sour when Alex saw a backpack in the street. He asked his nanny what it was and she told him it was for. Alex learned about school. He learned that Monday through Friday for 3 seasons of the year he would have to be in school. He learned that he would spend 13 years of his life in school, and if he did well enough he would get in to university. And for the first time in his life, Alex felt sadness.
The nanny realized something was wrong with Alex so they started heading home. But on their way home they came across a math book. Alex learned about homework. He learned that school wasn't just school. It was going to invade his home life too. And Alex fell deeper into despair.
They were hurrying home when they drove past a school, and the sign out front read "REPORT CARDS MUST BE SIGNED BY MONDAY." His teacher told him about grades. She told him how his performance would be boiled down to just a letter, and that was what he would be judged on. And Alex became depressed.
Author's Note: I took an excerpt from The Life of Buddha and turned it into a sillier modern day version. Instead of finding out about aging, sickness, and death our young hero discovers the school system.
The equivalent of death in our
young protagonist's eyes. Source
Bibliography
The Life of Buddha by Andre Ferdinand Herold. https://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2014/05/myth-folklore-unit-life-of-buddha.html
Hi Conner!
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting story idea! I like that you took an older story and made it more modern. If you want to do any revision, I would maybe work on the transitions in your story a little bit (it seems to go from one thing to another really quickly), and beef up your author's note a little. I was interested to see how this was a rendition of your source story, but your author's note doesn't really tell me enough about that story for me to understand the extent of the connection without going to read it myself.
Hello Conner! I had a fun time reading this story about Alex and his transformation into a disillusioned kid who develops a mounting despair over the school system. I hadn't realized that this was a retelling of the Life of Buddha and your author's note clarified that, but had I not been familiar with the source material, I would have trouble deciphering the changes you made. Also, your image information about report cards being equivalent to death made me laugh out loud. I look forward to reading more of your stories!
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