Prince Garrett

JANUARY

“This is a travesty!” said Prince Garrett. This can set me up for an epic fail if I get this wrong.

“What are you going to do?” said Michael.

“Hmm,” said the Prince. “Well, let’s see… my dad decided to give me the job of organizing the Winter Festival. One more step in order to prepare me to become king one day.  I’m just a kid for goodness sake! What do I know about organizing the Festival?”

“King William did say this will make you wise and help benefit all your subjects. If he thinks you can do it, well… before Michael could finish his sentence, the Prince shouted out “That’s easy for you to say, you’re whole kingdom is not at stake.”

Unfortunately, my dad’s ideas in assisting me to becoming wise are different from my own.”

Maybe you should get some additional advice, said Michael.

That’s good advice. Com’on exclaimed the Prince, let’s ask Grace and Magus.

After spotting Grace and Magus on the Royal Playground, the Prince shouted, “We need your help!”

“What’s bugging you,” asked Grace. “Haven’t you heard?” I am in charge of the Winter Festival this year.  My dad, King James thinks it will help me one day in becoming king.”

“It sounds like you have a bit of a dilemma,” said Magus as he pulled cotton candy out of thin air.  “This is no time for magic tricks,” said the Prince.

“Sorry, I can’t help it. All this talk about the Winter Festival has given me a craving for cotton candy.”  “Well stop it!  This is serious business” Prince Garrett replied, pulling a handful of candy off the paper cone and placing it in his mouth.

“What should I do?” He asked between bites of candy.

“The first thing you should do is make the festival free for the poor people,” Grace said, licking the pink cotton from her fingers.

“Free? That would be a grave mistake. The King will think you are weak.  You have to charge for the festival”, said Michael.  “I agree,” said Magus, in fact, whatever the price you are thinking, you should double it.”

“That’s just plain dumb.  You don’t even have a price in mind and you want to double it?” Grace began shaking her head in disagreement.

Not knowing what to do, Prince Garrett sat with his hands on his knees and his head in his hands.

“I know! Let’s ask Chef, he always gives you good advice,” said Michael. “Well that’s the best advice I heard all day,” said Grace.

“I’m not sure.” said Prince. “Suppose he thinks this job is too big for me?”

“Duh! The job is too big for you. That’s why you are going to speak with him,” said Grace.

“I wouldn’t want him to tell my father that I couldn’t handle…” before the Prince could complete the sentence, Grace grabbed him up and pulled him in the direction of the royal kitchen.

“Chef! Chef! We have a question we need to ask you,” Grace yelled as she came running from the pantry towards him, pulling the Prince close behind.

After reaching Chef, she pushed Prince directly in front of him. As soon as Prince Garrett opened his mouth, Grace blurted out:  “Prince Garrett doesn’t know what to do.  His dad, King James, gave him this mission of organizing the Winter Festival, and he does not know what to do or where to start.  We can’t even agree on if we should charge the poor or have them attend for free.  The boys want to charge double admission price to the festival and we have yet to even come up with an amount that should be charged. Can you help us Chef?”

Prince Garrett, the boys and Chef, took a second to process everything that Grace had said and Grace still had yet to catch her breath.

Chef paused after a deep sigh and said, “Prince is this accurate?” “Yes,” replied Prince.

“Everyone, have a seat. I want to tell you a story, said Chef and they all moved to be seated.

“I know a story about another young prince who had a similar problem,” “Well, actually, he was a king, but he was young. His name was Rehoboam.”

“Re-a-what?” the kids asked. 

“Re-ho-bo-am,” replied Chef.  Rehoboam was  one of the kings of the promised land. His father was King Solomon, one of the wisest kings who ever lived, but Rehoboam unfortunately did not inherit his father’s wisdom.”

“Why?” asked Prince Garrett.  “Please tell us the story,,” begged Grace and Magus.

“When Rehoboam first became king, his dad’s friend, Jero-bo-am, return to the Promised Land hoping that the new King, Rehoboam, would reduce the taxes.”

“Taxes, that’s money owed to the government,”Michael shouted.  “Shhhh!” said Grace.

“Jero-bo-am asked King Rehoboam to lower the taxes and Rehoboam said he would think about it.  While thinking about the taxes, he was also asked to reduce the amount of work that the people had to do all week.   You see  Rehoboam’s father, King Solomon, had the people work very long and hard and the people wanted the new King to show some mercy on them and reduce their work load.

Rehoboam wanting to be a wise king, thought it over and decided he needed to seek advice.”

“Like you’re doing Prince Garrett!”   “Yes, Magus , like what Prince is doing.

So King Rehoboam sent for his father’s advisors to learn what they would say on the matter.

The advisors told him that if he was good to the people they would be loyal and serve him forever.  Rehoboam listened to the advisors and decided he wanted to get a second opinion.”

“Isn’t getting a second opinion good?” asked Grace. 

“Seeking advice is good, but you have to be careful about the advice to take and act upon,” Chef said and he continued the story.  “Rehoboam then went to his friends, that were about his age and asked them what he should do about the taxes and workload of the people.

“Did they give him the same advice as King Soloman’s advisors?” asked Michael.

“Let him finish the story, Magus said in an eager voice.”

“Not exactly.” said Chef.  “He decided to follow his friends’ advice.”

They all leaned in and said in unison, “What happened?”

“The people rebelled – They became angry, and went against the king.”

“Did people get hurt?” The Prince asked.  “In a rebellion, people always get hurt – it not usually peaceful.  But the lesson here is.”

Magus and Michael both yelled, “Oooh, oooh,  I know, I know!  You should listen to the advice of the wise.”  “Yeah, your friends may not always have the best answers,” said Grace, glaring at Magus and Michael.

“That’s right children.”  Then Chef looked Prince Garrett in the eyes and said, “Come with me, I will introduce you to the people who have organized the Winter Festival for many years under the leadership of your father. They will guide you through the process”. 

“What if Prince Garrett has ideas that are different from theirs? asked Grace.  “I’m sure, you’ll want to make some changes to the Festival and make it your own Prince Garrett.  That’s expected,” replied Chef. “They will guide you through it.”

“Thank you Chef,” said the Prince.  “I’m starting to feel better about this whole Festival thing.”

Good, said Chef, I’m sure the King will be very proud of you.

The End