The Ignorant King: A Modern Parable, by Lee Langdon

There was a king who ruled an average kingdom.  His kingdom was not flourishing and growing like some other kingdoms around; nor was his kingdom seeing decay like even some other kingdoms.  The king was content to see his kingdom stay the same.

When he was a young king, early each morning before doing anything else, he would slowly sip a cup of coffee and read the newspaper.  One morning when he was reading the newspaper, two headlines stuck out to him more than any of the other headlines.  The first headline was encouraging; it made him feel very confident and assured about a decision he had made for his kingdom during the previous week.  However, the second headline was discouraging; it made him feel like he was a bad person, guilty for doing something he shouldn’t have done.  So, the king highlighted the encouraging headline with a bright yellow highlighter, then blackened out the discouraging headline with a black permanent marker. 

After that day, each morning the king repeated the same routine.  While slowly sipping his coffee, he would highlight the headlines that encouraged him, then blacken out the headlines that discouraged him. 

And the king and his kingdom stayed the same until he died.