The Queen's New Castle by Joe Wos

There once was a misguided queen with a good heart. She had grand ideas and plans, but could not see past the end of her nose. She was a woman of tremendous vision, limited though it was by its depth, and saw great things for the future of her kingdom, provided of course the future was no further than the tip of her nose. It is very difficult to be a visionary without 20/20 vision.

 The queen wanted to build a glorious castle with grand staircases, a hundred rooms, a grand ballroom, and beautiful stain glass windows! She drew up the plans herself and they were wonderful plans. She hired a hundred designers and architects to look over the designs, and hired a thousand builders to build her castle. All the while keeping the plans close at nose. But because she could see no further than the end of her nose, she had the castle built in front of her face. So she stood there all day admiring her castle, but all she could see was the brick wall at the end of her nose.

In fact, strangely enough, all that was built of the castle was this one wall directly in front of the queen's face, but since that was all she could see anyway she assumed it was a magnificent palace. No one dare tell the queen that her plans were well, a bit shall we say short sighted. So they would all tell her "Oh queen what a wonderful palace, and such a beautiful wall!"

"It is beautiful, isn't it?" The queen would say, never taking her eyes away from the wall to see who was talking to her. It wouldn't matter anyway, as she could not see past the end of her nose to see whose face was attached to the end of the nose at the end of her nose. She would occasionally try to look down her nose at the people telling her how wonderful she was. But mostly she stared at her beautiful castle, never realizing she had put up nothing more than a wall.

And so it was for many years, the queen and her wall she had put up, thinking she had constructed a beautiful kingdom. One day a little boy came up to her and said.

"Your majesty, what are you doing."

"Why little boy, I am watching out over my kingdom, my beautiful kingdom I have built for you my loyal subjects."

"Your majesty, you are simply staring at a wall. Have you ever tried to look at what lies on the other side of the wall?" asked the boy.

"Don't be silly!" Said the queen, "On the other side of this wall is my beautiful kingdom and castle I have built!"

The little boy took the queen by the hand and said "please come with me."

He led the queen to the other side of the wall, where there was nothing. There was nothing at all, but of course for the other side of the wall. The queen, only being able to see to the end of her nose and no farther, looked about and asked, "Why where is my castle? Where is my kingdom?"

"Well queen, you built a beautiful wall, but all it is, is a wall. Had you tried to see past the end of your own nose you would have noticed there was no castle there at all."

The queen sighed, "I thought I had built a beautiful castle for my kingdom but have built nothing at all but a simple wall."

"Do not worry queen, you still have a kingdom." Said the boy.

"Do not be silly boy, a Queen is not a queen without a kingdom, and kingdom is not a kingdom without a castle!"

"Come with me Queen and I will show you what a kingdom truly is." He took the queen by the hand and once again led her. This time he led her to a field where there were children laughing and playing. She could hear the laughter and the joy in the voice of the children, and for the very first time… she saw past the end of her nose. She saw the children playing and in them she saw the future, and in them she saw her kingdom.

"A kingdom is not about a building" she said, "it's about the people, and the most important people are the children!"

"Thank you child, thank you for helping me learn to see!"

 As the queen stood upon the hill beside that wall she could at last see for miles and miles and everywhere she looked she saw the joy children brought into the world and decided to create a kingdom for them.

The queen was so happy at finding her kingdom that she tore down that wall, and put up not a castle but a playground where children could laugh and play. And from then on she never lost sight of the children and hers is a kingdom filled with laughter and she finally found a happily ever after.