No Spells Set You Free

This is a Christmas story with a Wizard, but not exactly a fairy tale.

There lived people. They were living badly. It seems that people were not bad, but their lives were getting worse.

‘But what if we try to live better,’ said one of the people.

'Let’s try,' the people got excited. 'But what are we going to do?'

‘We are to change the leader,’ one of the people suggested. ‘Our leader has been doing everything to make us feel worse for a long time.’

‘We will ask him to leave and call someone else who will do better for us.’

‘That's right. We'll do it,’ people were happy with such a simple and understandable solution to their problems.

They came to the leader and asked him to leave but he refused.

People didn't expect this. They returned to their places and thought. It was getting worse.

“Let’s not ask, but demand,” one of the people suggested.

And people were again surprised that few of them thought of this.

They came and demanded, but they were refused again, and they were even beaten with sticks.

The people were not used to being beaten, so they started thinking again. It was getting worse.

They decided that there were not enough of them and that more were needed. They came in large numbers and demanded again. But there were also more those supposed to leave when they came, and they were beaten again.

‘Come on. Let's also take sticks, gather everyone we can, and demand again.’

‘No,’ said the people. ‘If we take sticks, we will become the same as them, but we are not them. Let's just gather everyone we can and make a strong demand again.’

That's what they decided to do.

They gathered everyone they could and even more. However, those to whom they came, in addition to sticks, had prison trucks, good gear, imported batons and huge shields.

They beat the people up again.

'Let's ask the Wizard. He knows exactly what to do next, he will help us,' offered a little bewildered people then.

They came to the Wizard.

They came to him and told him everything in detail.

‘Are you serious about that?’ he asked, ‘Don’t you want to be patient for a while?

‘We are taking it very seriously,’ people answered.

‘Well, then listen, I'll tell you what need to do:

You should all decide that you need to get rid of him immediately, and not gradually.

You also need to get rid of those who want to do it gradually. They are not on your side.

You need to get rid of all those who betrayed you before when you were asking and demanding. They are no longer on your side. They are already with him.

You need to stop listening to the sweet-voiced sirens who sing to you: “Everything is meaningless and impossible. Live the best you can and be happy.”

You must realize that there is no struggle for freedom without losses. If losses are avoided today, tomorrow there will be even more grief: first, there will be beaten, then wounded and killed.

You have to say to yourself: “I can do it and I will do it! No one else but me.”

And finally, believe me, no one, including yourself, wants to be a slave. And to consider yourself a hero being a slave, will not work. All of you are not to become heroes all at once. Just stop being slaves.

People were listening silently. The longer they were listening, the harder it was to remain silent.

‘We came to you as a Wizard, for a miracle, and you advised us to take risks ourselves, without any of your help. Give us some spell, some kind of “ticky-tocky”, or taint them, or something like that,’ said one of them finally.

‘There are no spells that will give you freedom,’ - the Wizard answered, ‘I told you everything I could and everything that you needed. I can say more, but that's enough for now.’

The people left. They discussed it and decided not to take risks. They decided to go and demand again and gather everyone, a huge crowd.

They went, received rubber bullets, not of domestic production, stun grenades from other countries, overseas water cannons, injuries, beatings, tortures, prisons, murders ... a real hell on earth.

Those who were able returned home and spat in the Wizard when passing by. They swore obscenely and showed their wounds.

The Wizard looked at them and sometimes smiled, and sometimes he was terrified of pain.

He smiled because he didn't create all this anger that people felt, but they created it themselves, and they hated him for it.

And he was hurt by the fact that people went through terrible trials and tortures, and he did not know what to do with it.

Maybe it was better to tell them a “ticky-tocky” spell, and they would continue to respect and even love him but not consider him guilty of all sins.

But already at night, closer to dawn, he remembered a woman walking at the end of the people returning after the defeat.

She raised her middle finger towards him, then smiled and added a second, turning it into a “V”, the sign of Victory.

And he got that he had been heard.

And he had peace in his heart.

Andrei Sannikov, Facebook