Glass Museum and Glass Kings

I finally went to the Chihuly Glass Museum at the Seattle Center. 

It was a very colorful experience. 

This one looks like the sun or a flower or an alien creature or worm butts all at the same time.

The giant solarium with hanging red flowers was really cool. It looked like a nice place to go with a book if it wasn't always so crowded.

Sometimes I felt like I was in a Dr. Seuss book. The structures reminded me of illustrations of plants that Dr. Seuss would create. 

Glass is strange stuff. It is made when sand is melted at very hot temperatures. The first people to have invented glass were the Egyptians. There is so much sand in Egypt, they were surrounded by the right material for the creation of glass. Some theorize the first bits of glass created were made accidentally, a by product of metal work.

***

I am glad to live in a world of glass, because without glass, we would not have windows! What a sorrowful world indeed. Olden day people tried to get creative with ways to have windows while keeping out cold. They used light colored pebbles that would let a little light in even if they were not very translucent. They had shutters that they could at least open in the the summer. They used parchment or animal hide dipped in oil, so the parchment would become more translucent. People got pretty creative.

***

Once, a long time ago, there was a king who believed he was made out of glass. Instead of confronting his duties and displaying kingly acts of bravery, he would skulk away and hide in cupboards with the glasses and bowls, believing, like the items he hid with, he could easily break into pieces. In the dark of a cupboard, he would look down at his hand. The light streaming in from the cracks in the cupboard illuminated his skin. But he did not see a hand of flesh, he saw a hand of delicate glass.

The glass king was named Charles VI of France, and his father, the king before him, died when he was only an eleven year old boy.

Before the young king believed he was glass, he believed something else that compelled him to suddenly kill three of his knights during a hunting trip. Strong men who stood beside him with noble intentions to protect the king suddenly appeared as angry traitors in the kings rattled mind.

Maybe there was peace in his mind for a while after that. Surely everyone hoped it was just a one time thing.

But no.

He forgot his name.

His wife appeared as a stranger.

He believed he was a saint.

He ran wild in hallways, uninhibited by the expectations of kingly manners and consumed with a need to expel the energy of dread and disorientation beating in his chest.

Then, he refused to bathe. He didn't want to break. He was made of glass.

Once his kingdom called him Charles the Beloved, but soon, all he was was his own mental illness and he died as Charles the Mad.

King Charles may not have been understood, but he is not the lone human who believed he was made of glass. There are others who have believed the same thing. It is called 'The Glass Delusion.' It seems that the Glass Delusion was more common long ago, and for a while, reported cases stopped happening. But in modern days, more people have been cropping up with Glass Delusion. It's like, people believed they were strong and believed in their own realness, but the world is so restless right now, it starts to become easy to once again to believe you are glass.

Sources:

• BBC Glass Delusion
• All that is Interesting King Charles VI
• Apartment Therapy History of Glass
• Wikipedia Charles VI
• Fantastic Window Cleaning Interesting Glass Facts
• Wikipedia History of Glass