Audrey finds little blue flowers, just a few, a species not otherwise seen, on the barren cliff rock of the Castle. Somehow the flowers have survived the endless beating of the sea, and the wind, and the salt in the water. She and Tutor dug them out of the crevice and carried them inside in a paper cup. Since then they have miraculously propagated, through their roots, on a bed of broken rock, and in a dish of brackish water. Mother keeps them in the small room, or nook, where she takes meals with Audrey.
One day, in her room, Tutor finds Audrey cross-legged, drawing with crayons on a tablet he has given her, about the most expensive present he can afford on a month's salary. In her picture: A Castle above which flies a pennant. The family’s emblem of a planet floating in space, with three words beneath, Own, Rule, Save. But above the planet she has emblazoned her own name, in an arc. A U D R E Y. About the base of the Castle is a ring or fringe of the lovely blue flowers, as if she had replanted them, and above the Castle is a rainbow, though there is not one cloud in the sky.
As editor, and Omniscient narrator pro tem, I realize that a moral is not necessary and may actually detract from the parable, but I do have to stay busy if I am to justify my job, and payment is by the word. It seems to me, then, that what the parable points out is that by identifying with Dynastic Wealth and living in and through our betters, we have not betrayed ourselves, our common humanity, the body politic, and the suffering world if and only if we can, as Secular Priests, and Dads and Mothers for Hire, and so forth, rear an Audrey to rule us wisely. It is not a question of democracy, plutocracy, oligarchy, tyranny, or monarchy, it is just a question of following a Leader who can save us. Who better to save than she who owns and rules us? We save what we own and govern and the rest goes to pieces. It may seem odd in America to talk this way, but it sure does fit with every Ultra-High Net Worth Wealth Advisory conference I have attended or spoken at in the last ten years. Audrey, you would agree, if you see her at bedtime, as she falls asleep, and her breathing evens out, and she has that half smile of a dreaming child, is the hope of the world.
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