The interesting thing about evil is that it affects our world in an innumerable amount of ways. Once it was introduced, it has not left our world since. Surely, there must have been an originating source of the evil that permeates throughout our world and manifests itself as genocides, terrorist attacks, mass murders, and tortures and killing sprees by psychopathic serial killers.
In fact, I have a great story to tell you. Perhaps, it may offer a greater understanding of the magnitude of effects an introduction of evil can have to an environment. In his writing on page 9, King mentions a story told by an author that tells the story of the origin of evil. It went something a little like this:
There was once a small village of no more than a few hundred dozen folks. As with any village, the days were filled with warm sunshine, joyful playfulness, and of course, a heartwarming sense of love and affection — present in all throughout the community. The daily activities of the villagers consisted of cleaning one’s home, helping to produce goods, and of course, getting water from the communal well that was located in the center of the village. It was a well of a thousand miles of depth, an old endless supply of water that served as the only source of potable water for all the folks around the village. Villagers had generations of ancestors swear by the holy, clean, thirst-quenching material that was entrenched for an infinite depth located at the very heart of this village. It had been the source of water for over a dozen generations.
There was one little girl that had noticed that her mom had suddenly gotten quite sick. It was when she alerted her father that things started to go wrong. “What did you see mommy do that made her so sick?” the father asked, to which the little girl responded, “She had just finished drinking water that she had gotten earlier from the well!”. It was not a day that had gone by before her mother had passed. The father, having had no time to mourn, quickly alerts his friends that something dangerous may be present in the well.
It had not even been two days before the entire village had heard of this story. Some folks believed that the water had been poisoned, others believed that there lived a creature in the well that had begun attacking villagers. Of course, the villagers were no longer retrieving water from the well. Some folks left to find a new source of water, others abandoned the community in which they had lived in for generations. It was not long before the entire village had been completely wiped of humanity.
The story had spread, and with it was the intertwined spirit of evil and death. It mattered not the truth of the fact, but rather the power of the story, because once you have told a story, you can never take it back. So, be careful of the stories you tell, AND the stories you listen to.
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Reflections
I actually had a lot of fun with this assignment. I find it very relevant to current world events (the pandemic crisis). This way of thinking may very well be a bit strange but I find it fascinating. The spreading ability of a powerful story seems to be very much like the exponential spread of a virus. Once it is introduced to the world (a story, as well as the virus), it is nearly impossible to take back.
Work Cited
andreiuc88. Photograph. Shutterstock. Web. 16 Apr 2019. <https://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/12-horror-films-that-reveal-mother-natures-evil-side>.
Calder, Todd. “The Concept of Evil.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, 21 Aug. 2018. Web. 16 Apr. 2020.
King, Thomas. The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative, House of Anansi Press Inc., 2003, Toronto.
Spencer, Sylvia. “The Village Well.” PoemHunter.com. N.p., 24 Feb. 2006. Web. 16 Apr. 2020.