The Tale of 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 center 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 center 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 pitch

fork. "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.