In the eye of the Beholder

[andrewducker]

Stolen from cassielsander

A god walks down a road, leaving the eastern horizon at dawn and arriving at the western one at dusk. He wears a mask which is blue on the right side and red on the left. The people who live nearby decide that the road is sacred. They come together to consecrate it. But those who live to the north want to consecrate it to the Blue Faced God, while those to the south want to consecrate it to the Red Faced God. They place competing shrines on their respective sides of the road, but that night can no longer stand the idea that a shrine to a false god could exist on their holy road. They therefore take up torches and gather at the road to burn down the false shrines. But, just as they face each other across the road, in the torchlight they see the god making his return journey, from West to East.

Now, you might think that his return would bring peace, because those to the North would now behold the Red Faced God and those on the South the Blue; except that before setting out he turned his mask upside down, so that the people all saw what they expected to see. Their fate is not recorded.

Comments

Not quite.

[rollick.livejournal.com]

"Cassielsander."

Re: Not quite.

[andrewducker]

Cheers, oh editor.

Fixed!

Re: Not quite.

[rollick.livejournal.com]

Yay!

I point this out mostly because I thought people might try to follow your link to see it in context, and not be able to find him. Which would be particularly sad, since he was disappointed earlier this evening because no one had responded to that particular post.