Dialogue Between A Squire And His Familiar Spirit

A squire had dozed off under a tree. Next to him the loose horses were grazing the lawn. His sleep was disturbed only by a bee that occasionally went to rest on his nose. Until, the third time, the squire slapped his nose to chase the bee away.

Spirit: Squire, why did you wake me? I was sleeping inside your head.

Squire: Spirit! You are here! I have not seen you in a while. I’ve been spending my days taking care of the horses at the stable, and when I’m not doing that then I’m studying with the other fellow students at the castle. The abbots teach us about the world, how it is and how it should be, and we pore over books and geographic maps all day. Sometimes I feel so full of learning, overflowing with precepts, that I just need to unleash all there is in me. And so I run into the woods and find respite in nature, I wander, I pretend to become friends with the deer and the squirrels. Although nature seems to be uncaring sometimes. Just the other day, I was beaten by a rodent. Today, this bee wouldn’t leave me alone. We had also just prepared the decorations for the knights tournament yesterday, only for a squall to ruin everything. Why does mother nature seem so uncaring?

Spirit: A short man from Recanati, a small town in the Marche region of Italy, once told me the story of an Icelander who had traveled…