If you’re like me, and most people with a decorative-minded spouse, you have several candles throughout your house that will never be lit.
There once was a house full of them. Everywhere you’d look, you would see a candle. Scented candles, brilliantly hand-crafted and colored candles. Candles that looked like sugar dispensers. Candles hung on the walls, and candles floating in big bowls of water. They were everywhere.
They really enjoyed being candles.
Then one day, a blue candle that was hung on the wall realized he had a wick. He asked the white candle next to him what it was for…
“It’s decorative.” He responded. “Mine is long and white, and still has a firm waxy film over it. I see yours is a bit soft, eh?”
Only then did the blue candle notice that by even moving the wick, he had broken off some of the wax covering it, and the wick was now a thin soft rope. He felt like he was supposed to do something. What could it be? Some time passed.
Later that evening, as the house grew dark, all the candles heard some excitement coming from that room. Word was spread that the blue candle had lit his wick, and was now LIGHTING THE ROOM!!!
No one could believe it. Eventually, the excitement died down.
The next day, the story of what happened finally was discovered. As the blue candle was lit, and full of light and life, and a few others around him had begun to be lit as well….the white candle noticed a blackness beginning to show on the wall near the blue candle, from the thin smoke that was created. The marks looked destructive, and ugly, and he was afraid it might ruin the wall they hung on.
So the few candles that were lit, were forced to be snuffed out.
“Whew” said the white candle. “That was close.”
(but everyone knows that once a candle is lit, and the wick is charred, it lights easier next time)
words from wick 