This is a story I heard from another storyteller, and I have told it for at least ten years. I have embellished it I am sure. It is good for homecoming. If anyone knows its author please let me know. A Unitarian Universalist native of Japan remembers the story from his childhood.
Kori was a poor stone cutter,
everyday Kori went up the mountain and knelled down
Kori banged and chipped and chisled
at the stone mountain,
everyday he took stone away, stone for building,
beautiful stone.
But Kori felt weak and insignificant,
Kori wished to be great and powerful.
Now in Japan in those days there were many gods,
and one of them overheard Kori wishing to great,
"I wish I was the greatest thing in the whole universe"
Kori was heard to cry, "great like the sun."
and lo and behold Kori's wish was fulfilled
and he found that he was the Sun.
Powerful and magnificent,
he beat his rays down upon the mountain.
Kori felt powerful now.
But then a cloud passed by
and blocked Kori's view of the mountain,
so he couldn't beat down his rays,
Kori was immediately transformed into the cloud,
now he was powerful,
he could block the Sun,
but in a moment a strong breeze blew Kori the cloud away,
and Kori was transformed into the wind,
now Kori thought the wind must be the most powerful thing,
and he blew some leaves around,
and picked up a child's kite and made it soar,
and then he really came roaring along
and hit the side of the mountian,
But Kori the wind was easily defected by the mountain,
and Kori was transformed into the mountain.
Now Kori thought to himself as mountain
I must be the most powerful thing in the whole universe,
powerful enough to withstand the wind,
that blows the clouds around,
the clouds that block the sun's rays at will,
and the sun that beats down its heat on the mountain all day.
And Kori reveled in his power as mountain,
just then he heard high up on the mountain,
the sound of a stonecutter,
banging and chipping and chisling on the face of the mountain,
and taking stone away for building,
the powerful mountain could not withstand
the slow determined work of the stonecutter,
and just as quickly as before Kori became Kori again,
and Kori understood that the most powerful thing
one can be in this creation,
is finding all that you really are.
Kori came home and found himself,
but he never would he have ever known himself,
unless he gone out,
become the sun, and the clouds, the wind,
and the mountains.
He would not have know who he was.
We like Kori have gone out,
and now we have come home again, gathering with our wiser heads,
and our refreshed spirits, and our renewed hopes,
for another year.
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