Gold is finally Gold

 

It is a story from metal land where all the metals were born. Even though some metals were bright and some were dark, they respected each other and lived in harmony. However, it was not to be the same for forever. With the passing decades and centuries, many metals such as Iron and Copper explored their strengths. They found out that they were stronger and were more in abundance to form a stronger community than the other metals.

With their newfound knowledge, Gold and copper made their individual groups to show their strengths to the rest of the community. With the strengths gained, they started bullying the other metals. The scuffles on street started to became a common sight. Metals from the weaker section of metals were thrashed by the stronger ones and left shapeless temporarily. Gold, a polite and calm metal, was also not spared. He used to be derided for his heavy weight and for his inability to perform heavy tasks. No metal wanted to be friends with weak and slow metals like Gold.

One day, at sundown, Gold was sitting alone on a metal riverbank that was hot red in color. He was thinking about the not so good treatment that he was receiving from the stronger metals. He was criticizing himself in his thoughts for being so heavy and for not being strong. Deep in his thoughts, he forgot that he was not to be near the river during the night hours because the river level used to rise and turn turbulent between sundown and sunrise.  Lost in his thoughts, he did not realize that it had turned dark and it was time for him to be not near the river.

The river, as usual, started to rise higher and its flow started gaining more speed and turbulence. Soon, while Gold was still absorbed in his sad feelings, a drop of water from the river, which had already turned turbulent now, splashed on to Gold’s right foot. The drop of water brought Gold back to his senses and made him shout in pain for the burn it has caused to Gold. What else could one expect from the hot flowing lava!

In pain, Gold tried to run away from the river. However, even before he could get himself up on his toe, a big wave of the river rose in the air and a figure of deity emerged from it. The figure was so large, impressive and bright that for a few seconds Gold could not see a full view of the wave. However, when he could, Gold was so dumbstruck and frightened looking at the giant figure that he could barely utter a word. In fear, he struggled initially to pull himself together; but, when he could, he thought that the river was not happy because Gold was on the riverbank alone late in the evening (something that was not allowed). He immediately asked the deity to forgive him and spare his life. He said in a choking voice that he would never be near the riverside again. The deity smiled and asked Gold to calm down but Gold found it difficult to control his fear. For some time, when Gold could not be seen calming down any time soon, the deity bent down a little and collected some water from the river. As she made gestures to sprinkle the water on Gold, he started screaming asking for forgiveness. With the memory of what a drop of water from the river did to him a few minutes ago, he thought that he would burn badly if the deity sprinkled the water she had collected in her hand on Gold. While he was still screaming in fear, the deity sprinkled the water on Gold. To Gold’s surprise, the feel of water from the river was cool this time. Not only did the water felt cool but also calmed Gold down. On seeing Gold calm, the deity asked Gold politely what was troubling Gold.

Surprising, Gold who is usually very slow at responding responded with whining about his recent experiences with Iron, Copper and other strong metals. Further, he narrated dismally about his experiences of not having many metal like him around, being too heavy to play or work with anyone, being not able to mix up with others even after his multiple trials.

While deity listened to Gold patiently, did not interrupt Gold even once and waited for Gold to pour himself out, with her gestures, she kept giving Gold an assurance that he was being heard. Gold went on for some time narrating sorrowful experiences of his life; he, then, stopped after taking a deep breath and looked up to the deity for her reaction.

After a brief pause, the deity replied to Gold, “Gold, what you have experienced is definitely painful especially from the perspective you shared with me. I could not change do anything with what has already happened and what you it made you feel. However, if you take a step back and reflect on what happened to you as a third person, you may see that what you experienced was not as bad as the way you took it. Would you believe me if I say that a little bit of ignorance somewhere led to most of the anguish you told me about?”

“What do you mean?” interrupted Gold in a relatively calmer voice.

The deity could sense that Gold was in a receiving mode. She added, “I mean Gold that somewhere you mistook even your greatest of qualities as your weakness. This made you ignore the best of the qualities you have bane of your life!”

Gold interrupted the deity again, this time with a smirk, “Greatest qualities and me!”

The deity with a smile resumed, “Yes, the greatest qualities, such as you not having many like your kind around you. Did you know that being scarce makes you special especially because of the other greater qualities that you possess which other metals do not have…?

“What other qualities do I have”, asked Gold without waiting for the deity to finish.

The deity could understand the impatience of Gold and did not mind the interruption. She responded unwearyingly to Gold, “you being too heavy, Gold, is because you carry much more than other with you. This gives you a special quality of being so malleable that you could morph into any shape without much effort and cracking. There would be hardly any metal that could not match your potential here.”

On hearing the response from the deity, Gold smiled a little and appeared much more positive with even a slight gleam on his face. “Further, being not able to mix up with other gives you even greater strength by protecting you from the usual aging process – other metals age much more quickly than you do.”, added the deity. Deity paused for a while and asked, “Would you agree to what I just said?”

Gold, very blushingly, nodded his head in affirmation, however he was not fully convinced and, thus, asked, “While I agree to what you said but this won’t not turn me fast and strong against other metals, will it?”

The deity smiled on hearing Gold. She nodded affirmatively to confirm what Gold had just said; and replied, “dear Gold, what do you think this world would be if every metal was fast, strong and had the same qualities.” With a pause, she added a question, “Don’t you think that life will lose it taste and flow if we all were equal to one another?”

On not hearing a vocal response from Gold, the deity continued, “Life is about exploring one’s strengths and building on them. If we remain oblivious of our gifts and remain focused on what we do not have, we could never be happy in our life. Dear Gold, I would like you to reflect on what I just said.”

Gold was about to respond to the deity but he felt someone shaking his back and calling his name. On turning around, he found that his mother was asking him to get up for breakfast. Immediately, he turned around to talk to the deity but found no one there. All that he could sense was a bright start of the day with Sun having marked a new day in the metal land.

Gold, for the next few days, reflected on the words of the deity from his dream or reality (he still was not sure) and used her words to discover himself. Eventually gold did discover the truth of his life and since his self-discovery; even though Gold had not turned faster or stronger than the other metals, he has always been treated as nothing less than a noble metal and has always been valued more than most of the other metals. Check the commodity index from the time it has been existing to know the truth of this story!