John saw an angel, a woman clothed with the sun.
He saw in her the native image of mankind.
He saw her not covered, hidden, or embellished.
He saw in her the sun of our humanity
crowned with stars of rejoicing
engaged in the 'Royal Dance'.
Under Tony's direction a two-week tour had been arranged for Ushi and me. Ushi wanted two weeks in the dessert to heal the soul. Granting her wish was Fred's note of thanks to her for her help. My role was secondary. I was 'allowed' to accompany her as her security escort. Of course, knowing Tony, I wasn't surprised that the entire Air Force contingent in the area knew of our arrival. Ushi's fame, based on her efforts in Venice, preceded her. In comparison, I was just a diplomat, someone doing his duty.
Perhaps it had been under Tony's 'orders' that nobody spoke about politics. Getting away from the political world had been the purpose of her holiday. In respecting her wishes, politics appeared to be a forbidden subject. We were treated like newlyweds instead, discretely, but affectionately. Maybe that's what Tony had told them that we were.
We stayed in remote hotels at first in various parts of the dessert of the Southwest. We even camped once. At mid-week a newlywed Air Force couple joined us. They came with a four-seat helicopter at their disposal. With that we could go wherever we wanted, and the couple knew all the best places. Ushi and I became a part of the family so to speak, and apparently a part of the Air Force family as well. We were treated to life as it unfolded at the grassroots level where the games are easy, unlike at the diplomatic level, and full of fun and wide open for anything.
At one of the parties that we were invited to, Cathleen, our newlywed bride, wanted to act out a fantasy. She confided to Ushi that the fantasy had come to her like a dark urge during her wedding party.
"Why don't you act it out now, right here?" Ushi asked.
Ushi might have imagined what this dark-urge fantasy had been. With a grin on her face she encouraged Cath. It seemed safe enough to do something daring. Everyone at the party had called her simply, Cathy, or Cath for short. Her full name, Cathleen, had never been used by anyone. She appeared to be 'family' to them all, or someone closer.
With a great smile on her face, when the music tape had come to an end, Ushi stood up and said that she wanted to tell a story. She asked for help to clear a space in the middle of the room. A table had to be moved and chairs rearranged. She brought one of the children's high chairs from the kitchen and placed herself in the middle of the open space and told her story.
Ushi told the story of a king. It was a king with a good heart who had received visitors from a far away land. The visitors were not royalty, or philosophers, or priests. One was a poet, another a composer and performer of music, another was a man of science, and so forth. They were traveling together to explore the beauty that can be found in being human. Rumors had it that wherever they went people became uplifted by their wisdom.
So it was that they came before the king. The king was pleased with their performances, their stories, and their wisdom. A few days later, during the royal banquet, on the night before their departure to new destinations, the poet of the group asked the king if he was happy being isolated from his people by his wealth. The king answered that he wasn't at all happy about it, but that he was also unable to do anything to change that. He explained that if he gave away all of his possessions in order to be closer to his people, it wouldn't help many and he would end up as poor as the rest of them, so that in the end nobody would be bettered.
The poet agreed that this wasn't a workable solution. The musician however had an idea of how the problem might be solved. Both the poet and the man of science agreed that the composer's idea could work.
