Part I:
\nMany years ago, in England, there was a castle-town called Camelot. One day Sir Lancelot went out riding on his horse from Camelot. Sir Lancelot was not very smart and so he forgot to take his sword. Suddenly on a narrow path, the Black Knight appeared. The Black Knight was Sir Lancelot\u2019s enemy.
\nHe said, \u201cYou have no sword. I could kill you easily now. But I am a playful fellow. So I will give you a question. If you can answer this question, I will not kill you. But you must promise to return here soon.\u201d Sir Lancelot agreed. The Black Knight then said, \u201cThe question is, \u2018What do women want most?\u2019\u201d
\nSir Lancelot didn\u2019t know the answer. But he had lots of friends back at Camelot and they were always talking about women. So he thought surely they would know. So he turned and started riding back to the castle.
\nSuddenly on the path an ugly old woman jumped out and stopped him. She said \u201cI heard your conversation with the Black Knight and know the answer to the question. Find me a husband and I will tell you the answer.\u201d Sir Lancelot felt she was right but said, \u201cExcuse me\u201d and he rode around her and went on to the castle.
\nAt the castle he asked all the fellow knights \u201cWhat do women want most?\u201d They all had different answers, some said chocolate, some said money, some said diamonds, some said \u201cme\u201d. Sir Lancelot was not very smart, but he did have good intuition and his intuition told him these answers were not right. His intuition also told him that the old woman he met on the path really did have the right answer.
\nLancelot said to the knights, \u201cThe person who I think really knows the answer is an ugly old woman. But she won\u2019t tell me the answer unless I find her a husband. Would any of you marry her?\u201d Immediately all of their heads dropped as if a teacher had asked a difficult question in a classroom. EXCEPT one. Sir Gawain was a very nice fellow and he stood up and said, \u201cIf it will save your life, I will marry any woman.\u201d So the two of them rode out to the forest. They found the old woman and quickly told her that Sir Gawain would marry her. Then Sir Lancelot said quickly, \u201cPlease tell me, What do women want most?\u201d
\nThe ugly old woman said, \u201cWomen want _______.\u201d
\n[STOP HERE. Ask as many people as possible the question \u201cWhat do women want most?\u201d ]
\nPart II:
\nSo there was Sir Lancelot and Sir Gawain in front of the old woman waiting for an answer to the question, \u201cWhat do women want most?\u201d The old woman said, \u201cWomen want . . . [pause] . . . choice.\u201d Both Sir Lancelot and Sir Gawain were confused by this answer but they accepted it. The old lady and Sir Gawain then went back to Camelot to get married. Sir Lancelot went to meet the Black Knight. \u201cWhat is the answer?\u201d said the Black Knight. \u201cCh Ch ch ch choice?\u201d said Sir Lancelot stuttering in fear. \u201cDamn! You got it right. How did you know?\u201d \u201cOh, I\u2019m just smart\u201d replied Lancelot.
\nThen Sir Lancelot rode back to Camelot. The old lady and Sir Gawain had just gotten married and they went up to the wedding room at the top of the castle. The old lady jumped on the bed, and Sir Gawain went to the window to get some fresh air. Suddenly, there was a very sweet breeze that came through the room and he turned and he saw that the old lady had turned into a young beautiful woman. \u201cWhat happened?\u201d he wondered.
\nThe young lady explained that a wicked witch had put a spell on her and that the only way to break the spell was to marry a knight. Gawain was very excited and started toward the bed, but the young lady said, \u201cWait, it is not completely over. I can be beautiful like this only half of every day. Do you want me to be beautiful in the day or in the night? The rest of the time I will be that old lady.\u201d
\nSir Gawain thought long and hard. And finally he said, \u201d___________________\u201d.
\n[STOP here and ask the people you tell the story to what they think he said. What would they choose? And what would you choose?]
\nPart III:
\nSir Gawain didn\u2019t know what to say for the longest time. It was hard to choose between night or day. Finally, he said, \u201cI don\u2019t know, you decide!\u201d And suddenly ZZZAGABOOM! Lightening struck the castle and . . . the young lady said to Sir Gawain, \u201cYou did it! You gave to a woman what she wants most: CHOICE. Now the whole curse is off of me and I can be beautiful both night and day as long as I live and for as old as I become!\u201d
\n[Part IV: Optional]
\nNow some people say that\u2019s the end of the story and the beautiful woman and Sir Gawain lived happily ever after. But others say that Sir Gawain thought things over and he realized that the woman had had no CHOICE when she married him. And he too came to think that CHOICE was important, for women and men. So he decided to get a divorce and give her the choice of meeting him if she wanted to.
\nSome people wisely end the story here, leaving listeners the choice to imagine their own ending. Some unwisely continue and say these two dated, got married, and had a son that they, strangely enough, named \u201cKnight.\u201d When he grew up, he became a knight, of course. So they called him Knight Knight. And the other Knights were always teasing him in the evening by saying \u201cnight-night Knight Knight.\u201d
\n(At this point the story-teller begins dodging rotten eggs and tomatoes thrown by the audience! )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Part I: Many years ago, in England, there was a castle-town called Camelot. One day Sir Lancelot went out riding on his horse from Camelot. Sir Lancelot was not very smart and so he forgot to take his sword. Suddenly on a narrow path, the Black Knight appeared. The Black Knight was Sir Lancelot\u2019s enemy. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other","category-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachingstories.briancullen.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachingstories.briancullen.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachingstories.briancullen.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachingstories.briancullen.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachingstories.briancullen.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teachingstories.briancullen.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10780\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachingstories.briancullen.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachingstories.briancullen.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachingstories.briancullen.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}