The Fisher King

It begins when the king is a boy. He has to spend a night alone in the forest, to prove his courage so he can become a king. And while he's spending the night alone, he is visited by a sacred vision.

Out of the fire, appears the Holy Grail. A symbol of God's divine grace.

And a voice said to the boy: "You shall be keeper of the grail, so that it may heal the hearts of men."

But the boy was blinded by greater visions of a life filled with power and glory and beauty. And in his state of radical amazement, he felt for a brief moment not like a boy, but invincible...like God. So he reached into the fire to take the grail, but the grail vanished, leaving him with his hand in the fire, to be terribly wounded.

Now, as this boy grew older, his wound grew deeper, until one day, life for him lost its reason. He had no faith in any man, not even himself. He couldn't love or feel loved. He was sick with the experience. He began to die.

One day, a fool wandered into the castle and found the king alone. Being a fool, he was simple minded, he didn't see a king. He saw a man alone and in pain.

And he asked the king, "What ails you, friend?"

And the king replied, "I'm thirsty, I need some water to cool my throat."

So the fool took a cup from beside his bed, filled it with water and handed it to the king. As the king began to drink, he realised his wound was healed. He looked in his hands and there was the Holy Grail, that which he sought all of his life.

He turned to the fool and asked in amazement: "How could you find that, which my brightest and bravest could not?"

And the fool replied: "I don't know. I only know that you were thirsty."