Love conquers all

Sounds pretty cliche right? Not in the "Wondrous Oriental Tale of the Naked Saint" its not. Love really does conquer all- even an incessant seemingly uncontrollable ticking in your mind. In this literary fairy tale there are a few specific elements that are classic fairy tale. First is the interaction with nature. The nature of the setting is very descriptive and the author pays attention to the specifics of the cave and the surrounding forrest. In fact, the saint has such an intense interaction with nature that nature and its "song of love" cures his ailment. Another aspect is the mystical and unknown setting of the Orient. It is not specific to a certain place or time period. This lack of specificity of this location ads to the universality of the story and the underlying messages and themes of the tale. The last fairy tale characteristic is the one the only L-O-V-E. Of coarse in this fairy tale it is a couple of star crossed lovers who cause the man with the incessant ticking of time to forget his problem and realize that the in life one should focus on finding happiness, preferably with another person, than worry about the passage of time.

The magic in this story is not about a fairy god mother or magic wands- it is about the amazing and awesome power of nature. It was natures song of love, not a supernatural force, which caused the saint forget his focus on the passage of time and the ticking of his internal clock. The saint is released from his human prison when he witnesses love. I found this aspect very interesting. Humans have an internal clock- we obviously dont live forever. the saint was trapped in a human form with this ever present lingering concern for the inevitability of death. However he saw love and was able to release himself from being human and the accompaning worries of mortality. This story highlights the power of love and magic of nature to defeat the omnipresent fear of death in humans and return a saint to the heavans. Thats some pretty powerful stuff if you ask me.