The previous year, Erado’s father, Esaul, had been killed on a hunting expedition. That was the day before Erado’s birthday. As he had no one else, his mother died during birth, Erado had been forced to wait until the following year for this historic rite of passage. It saddened him to think that his father would not be there to perform the delivering of torch. Instead, today, it would be the village elders handing him the torch to light the lantern in front of his home.
Erado had started to doze in the shade of the Wisdom Tree. Children’s laughter could be heard and the sound of the brook soothed Erado’s soul. This past year had been rather difficult for him. In a matter of months, Erado aged dramatically. Erado’s appearance went from youthful and full of life to being hard and ragged with the knowledge of the world. If only his father could see him, and how much of a man he had become, without their rites of manhood. However, in order to be recognized by the rest of his community, Erado had to go through this.
The voice of one of the elders called to Erado, and he had no choice but to give up his daydream and give heed to the elder’s voice. Erado stood and looked around. The wind gently kissed his cheeks, and he knew. The Wisdom Tree had been the spot his father and he used to sit and talk. This tree had more right to grant the boy his rite of manhood than the elders did, and yet with the wind Erado’s resentment blew away. Erado approached the elder, who was now standing in front of Erado’s hut.
Erado smiled and laughed inwardly as the elder handed the torch to him. Through everything, he had been through, and through everything, he had seen Erado was in many ways a man more so than those that had received their rite the previous year. It was at this he laughed, because he knew his father had already bestowed manhood upon him; under the shade of the Wisdom Tree.
Custom Search
No comments:
Post a Comment