kechambers
continuation
After he’d found the magical lamp, after he’d gained control of the djinn imprisoned within it, after he’d become wealthy and powerful, Ala ad-Din built a palace with four and twenty large, airy windows. His intent was to impress the Sultan, whose daughter he was to wed. He had the djinn set twenty-three of the windows in precious stones…diamonds, emeralds and rubies. The twenty-fourth window he left unfinished.
The Sultan was properly astonished at the luxury of the palace and the display of wealth, but he noticed the unfinished window. Over a sumptuous meal, he asked Ala ad-Din about it. “I wished your Majesty to have the glory of finishing this palace,” the lad said. The Sultan, pleased by the show of respect, sent for the royal jewelers. “Alas,” they said, “your Majesty hasn’t enough jewels to finish the window.” The Sultan summoned all the jewelers in the city, then all the jeweler’s in the land…and still they lacked enough precious stones to complete the window. And the Sultan realized that what he’d taken for a show of respect was, in fact, a show of power.
From that day on, the phrase “to finish Aladdin’s window” has been used to describe the futile attempt to achieve perfection.
Every time we look through a camera’s viewfinder, we are trying to finish Aladdin’s window. Sometimes we come very close.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, greg fallis and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
