Love and Madness A long time ago, before the world was created and humans set foot on it for
the first time, virtues and vices floated around and were bored, not
knowing what to do. One day, all the vices and virtues were gathered
together and were more bored than ever.
Suddenly, Ingenious came up with an idea: "Let's play hide and seek!"
All of them liked the idea and immediately Madness shouted: "I want to
count, I want to count!" And since nobody was crazy enough to want to seek
Madness, all the others agreed. Madness leaned against a tree and started to
count: "One, two, three..."
As Madness counted, the vices and virtues went hiding. Tenderness hung
itself on the horn of the moon, Treason hid in a pile of garbage. Fondness
curled up between the clouds and Passion went to the centre of the earth.
Lie said that it would hide under a stone, but hid at the bottom of the
lake, whilst Avarice entered a sack that he ended up breaking.
And Madness continued to count: "... seventy nine, eighty, eighty
one..."
By this time, all the vices and virtues were already hidden - except
Love. For undecided as Love is, he could not decide where to hide. And this
should not surprise us, because we all know how difficult it is to hide
Love.
Madness: "...ninety five, ninety six, ninety seven..." Just when Madness
got to one hundred, Love jumped into a rose bush where he hid. And Madness
turned around and shouted: "I'm coming, I'm coming!"
As Madness turned around, Laziness was the first to be found, because
Laziness had no energy to hide.
Then he spotted Tenderness in the horn of the moon, Lie at the bottom of
the lake and Passion at the centre of the earth.
One by one, Madness found them all - except Love. Madness was getting
desperate, unable to find Love.
Envious of Love, Envy whispered to Madness:
"You only need to find Love, and Love is hiding in the rose bush."
Madness grabbed a wooden pitch fork and stabbed wildly at the rose bush.
Madness stabbed and stabbed until a heartbreaking cry made him stop.
Love appeared from the rose bush, covering his face with his hands.
Between his fingers ran two trickles of blood from his eyes.
Madness, so anxious to find Love, had stabbed out Love's eyes with a
pitchfork. "What have I done! What have I done!" Madness shouted.
"I have left you blind! How can I repair it?"
And Love answered: "You cannot repair my eyes.
But if you want to do something for me, you can be my guide."
And so it came about that from that day on, Love is blind and is always
accompanied by Madness
