Fable of the Blue Horse

Imagination, Mixed Media Collage on canvas board, 22" x 28", by Susan K. Leslie

The Fable:

The fourteen year old child stood looking at the painting she had just completed. Painted on black velvet was a magnificent horse standing on a rocky point silently surveying his world, a guardian at large. Everything looked blue in the light of a large moon hanging brightly in the sky above. How she longed to be there with him, imagining the feel of the cool night air, the softness of his coat, the acceptance and safety of a loving friendship between horse and human. The longing was almost unbearable in its sweetness.

I must take this to father, she thought. He loves horses, too. She grabbed up the painting and ran to find her father. She found him sitting in his favorite chair and she proudly displayed her painting to him. Will he like it she asked herself. Oh, I hope he likes it! He must for it is beautiful, achingly so.

"What do you think, Dad?" She eagerly looked at her father's face, waiting in rapt anticipation of his approval. He looked at the painting and slowly turned his eyes to her hopeful face.

Gently, he said, "There's no such thing as a blue horse," crushing her hopes and dreams in one fell swoop from which it took that child forty years to recover.

The moral of this story: The words we speak matter way into the future. Be careful with your words.