“The Legend of the Holy Drinker”

From time to time, I see “genius” who makes me think that this person is surely created by God. So “Genius”, where do they come from? My uncle is so eccentric and a kind of genius who lives freely, following his desire and will. On an occasion, I saw a wired picture at my uncle’s place: in the center of the picture, there was a thick trunk and behind the tree, a bus was there in small as a background. And I asked who had taken this photo. My uncle answered, “Well, it’s strange. Because I snapped the bus and found the tree there after printing it out.” I got stunned by his explanation. The logic is reversing itself. My uncle likes bus and when he saw the bus, he took the photo without noticing the tree; namely his concentration toward the bus erased the existence of the tree from his sight. How surprising! What an irrational behavior! It won’t happen to an ordinary person like me.

There is a different type of genius in my class, JHS-1. She lives in dream and her mind is flouting on the surface of pond of dream like a fairy. This fairy called “Amoabil” likes smiling, playing and joking, and always seeking for something interesting. When she eats, when she walks, when she talks, any moments are playgrounds for this genius. And she is so witty and has a good sense of humor to come up with new ideas, so you can’t anticipate what will happen in the next moment. She is like a jack-in-the-box! For her mind is emancipated from the yoke of “common sense” and her heart is released from any fear, anxiety and worry, as fairy lives in the wonderland: Peace & Happy.

And she is always drunk. Needless to say, she doesn’t drink any alcohol, but she got drunk with life itself. When wind breezes, she gets drunk with the smell of wind; when rain falls, she becomes tipsy with the drop of rain; when a fairy tempts her to the wonderland of Sleep, she falls asleep embraced by the lullaby of the fairy. She can enjoy small happiness in life and never resists her ego like a 3-year old baby. Every small matter in everyday life seems a drop of alcohol for her. And some deaf children utter sounds (though not words), and she always does so like “Dafaaaaa”, “Defefeee”, “Uheee”, as if a drinker was unable to talk properly. Genius, “To be or not to be, this is the question that I want to ask God”. Yet there is one thing for sure: Genius surely lives closer to God than we do.

I remember the title of the Italian movie: “The Legend of the Holy Drinker (La leggenda del santo bevitore)”, though I forgot its story, and when I think of Amoabil, this title came to my mind. From time to time you’d have witnessed the scenes of Genius in sports, music, art etc., as if they’re beyond human beings. The moment your mind is released with extraordinary concentration, you may be able to get closer to God like genius. When you get drunk, your power would be enlarged and you could perform more than you think. It is, so-called, the state of “intoxication” in which human could perform more than human. In Olympic Games, you may have seen that an athlete gets intoxicated (drunk) with extraordinary concentration and people see God in the athlete and also get drunk with it. And in religion, Faith must start with getting drunk by God. Drunk is the religious rite for God. 

Well, the other day my adorable drunken genius fairy, Amoabil, came to me and talked about “work” with her unusual serious face. In the school, some students “help” teachers but some teachers are very cruel to students. According to her, her “master” teacher forced her to work when she was sick and even if she explained it, he didn’t believe her and never gave her medicine. And she worked alone and the teacher’s children didn’t work. I would regard it as a case of “Child-Labor”. I had to wake up from the dream of my Fairy Drinker in order to confront the reality of our school.