Today, to distract myself and ease my anxiety about the upcoming party, I'd like to share a well-known tale with you!

In the beginning of time lived a fabulous Being, the World-Bird. His plumage, more flamboyant than all the stars in heaven, sparkled with an infinity of colors. Each of His wills was changed into truth by a simple word. His wings could take Him to places beyond imagination, instantly. His existence had no beginning and no end, so much so that the very notion of « life » was foreign. Despite His greatness, the World-Bird was consumed by sadness:

« This long existence is dull without company. What an absurd immensity, if I cannot share it with anyone but Myself! »

He looked for a solution. How could He get out of loneliness? Finally, an idea came:

« I will create what I lack! Is it not within My capabilities? »

The glorious Creator set to work. He produced many new things, starting with the tiniest and gradually enlarging his craft. But, nothing managed to move by its own effort. Everything remained frozen, hopelessly without any animation!

« Why can't I make anything that comes to life by itself? » He asked in sorrow, as all His creations crumbled to dust no matter how hard He tried.

A terrible grief seized the Majestic Being, who wept for an eternity, until an answer came into His mind:

« All animation can only come from Me. I must breathe some of Myself into My creations. »

However, the World-Bird exists beyond causality. The smallest fraction of Him dies only to be reborn, again and again, perpetually. He contains all beginnings and all ends. To acquire even a piece of such an essence is to be cursed in the instant, for an object into which this primordial principle is infused would become self-contradictory. How to solve this crucial issue? The World-Bird carefully examined His very body, then His feathers, to better understand the sole movement He could experience:

« I know! » He exclaimed.

The World-Bird glowed and split in two with a phenomenal explosion that changed our universe. One part became a tiny wonder, a phoenix. The other turned into a gigantic winged snake, a dragon. Both shared half of the same spirit, oriented towards antagonistic goals. The small embodied every new dawn, all beginnings, driven by an insatiable thirst to build. The big, on the opposite, represents every twilight, all ends, agitated by his inexorable need to consume everything in order to return it to the World-Bird and restore its original form.

Our phoenix friend began his task, free to take as much of himself as he wished to infuse his works. Unfortunately, his « brother » immediately devoured them all. They went into war. A cosmic battle, which lasted until the blazing bird exiled his counterpart. Thus, nothing could stop him from spawning life! He breathed his own essence, shaping multitudes. As he created, his brightness faded. The dazzling avian's vitality would eventually reach a limit.

Nevertheless, that did not matter to him. He wanted to accomplish the World-Bird's obsession: to generate an independent creature, one that drew movement only from itself. To his despair, his creations were nothing but dolls that frolicked on command. Why do his attempts keep failing? Why does nothing move on its own?

Every new attempt renewed his hope. Maybe this time it would happen! So he went back to work giving birth only to automatons. That situation lasted so long he lost his colors. The universe was polluted with mindless aberrations, agonizing like their maker. Heat was vanishing. Soon, everything would cease to exist. The phoenix was devastated. This great work turned out to be a monumental failure! The dragon growled:

« How many eons before you accept that we must do things together? What you take from yourself, I must return to you! »

« Silence, destroyer! » Replied the phoenix in a dying rage.

« Don't you understand? Every lost feather costs you but has no spirit! Your agitation is useless. It takes more than good will to create. Your blind thirst causes my exile, yet the destruction I unleash has meaning in our plan! Without it, expect no change. Without change, no animation is possible. »

« Snake, you can only break! Why should I let you decide the fate of my children? »

« If this puppet show is enough to make you happy, then so be it! When you are stripped of all your substance, I'll do my work without you being able to stop me. Yet, the World-Bird's ambition is also part of myself. I don't want to be alone any more than you do, no matter how thankless my task seems. »

« How could destruction have any sense? »

« My responsibility is the missing piece without which success will remain beyond our grasp! All movement implies change, and change can only occur when the previous state of a thing is destroyed to make room for the next. Here is the mystery. Your creations are nothing but extensions of your ego, they only live through your delusions. By my actions, each will come back to us and you'll make new ones for ever. This cycle will provide the necessary momentum, the animation that shall transcend our wills. »

« A remedy which allows you to break my creations! »

« There is no deceit in my intention, feathered impertinent: to give back its essence to the World-Bird! My success is near, you'll soon be too weak to resist. Even so, I want to see motion appear, and unlike you who wish to invoke it through frenzied creation, I know that it will only emerge from change! »

The phoenix remained silent, observing his works with melancholy. Is this the limit of what can be accomplished? The sparkling one feared that his brother might be right. To give life and then tolerate its inevitable demise? An impossible suffering! Would it be worse than the horrible spectacle of a perpetual agony?

« You must learn to give up. I have accepted the idea that the World-Bird will never become what it was. In order to live up to His foolish vision, we must let our products rise and fall. By holding on without admitting any end, nothing will ever live! »

« What do you propose, dragon? »

« Let us build a domain on unalterable Principles, where every object has its identity, where every motion starts from a cause to an effect, where contradiction leads to annihilation. A world where action emerges from the compromise between dawn and dusk. »

« So be it... »

The dragon devoured the universe, returning his brother's vitality. Both dashed forward: on one side the phoenix was creating and on the other, the snake was destroying. A beautiful dance, so magnificent that they soon as one. Both spirits merged into a new World-Bird, greater than the last. This choreography became a reality in its own right, populated by spontaneously shifting sand. Grains aggregated into an infinite number of forms, imitating their Creator.

Now, no one escapes the Principles. It is impossible to even imagine breaking them, for anyone who tries to do so will condemn himself. Whoever wants to survive must enter into the dance, whether he understands its meaning or not. To distinguish the first World-Bird from the second, my people gave Him a name: He-Who-Is, as opposed to the previous one, He-Who-Was.