The Cape Maker
The Cape Maker
Once upon a time, legend tells, of a secluded mountain cabin where there lived a tailor known the world over as the maker of the most exquisite, detailed garments. He was renowned as a veritable magician with a needle and thread.
This artisan, however, also had a secret.
Sequestered in his remote mountain cabin, hunched over his table with spools upon spools of multi-colored thread and fabrics of every exotic land across the globe he weaved his magic day after day.
By night, however, the magician of the thread served another, equally magical, purpose.
He was known to a select group simply as, The Cape Maker.
Superheroes from every corner of the globe would travel to his forest-ensconced hideaway to request his services for no one was as skilled as he in creating the most beautiful capes. Each thread intricately woven with such care and every attention to detail with only the finest materials such as befitting a superhero.
His craftsmanship was unsurpassed and yet only a select few were worthy of having him create his masterpieces for them.
Bulletproof? No problem. Fireproof? But of course. No challenge was too great for this Master of the cloak. His work was the envy of all, and the pride of but a few.
Every superhero requires a costume befitting their talents and powers. Every superhero wanted a cape from The Cape Maker. His talents, however, were reserved for only the worthy.
Each visiting hero was treated the same way.
The Cape Maker would sit with them by the hearth of his stone fireplace, overlooking the lake. He would offer them something warm to drink, to ward off the mountain chill, and then a conversation would begin.
Respectfully he would ask each one “why” they wanted a Cape?
What was it they felt a cape would do for them?
How would it help them in their work?
What purpose did they serve?
Very few would earn the privilege of having The Cape Maker weave his skill into cloth for them.
Over the course of time, as fewer and fewer Superheroes continued to roam the Earth, there became fewer and fewer Capes produced by the Cape Maker.
Today, only one remains.
Only one Superhero.
You may search the world, but you will never find the cape, and no, not because the Cape is invisible.
The power, you see, was never in the Cape at all. These Superheroes never needed the Cape.
It was who they were that mattered.
It was their selflessness, their passion in the service of others, in helping humanity, and putting the needs of others before their own that earned them the right to The Cape Maker’s skill; but it was never about the Cape.
Today the power of the Cape is found not in a cloak of beautiful cloth, but in what it represents.
The comforting feel of velvet softness caressing the shoulders; the warmth and protection of being surrounded by the exquisite luxury and heaviness of the Cape as it enfolded itself around you. The stell-like barrier of quality keeping the elements, and even the negativity of the world, from penetrating beyond its protective shell.
These powers, and so many others, were not found in a cloak of unmatched splendor, but in the power of The Cape Maker himself. His quiet, unassuming support of the Superhero. His gift of the most exquisite garment to ordain each Superhero’s shoulders never held any magic. It was inside of them all along. All he did was help them believe in it.
Unassumingly, Humbly, Modestly, and Silently he performs his magic no longer with thread and needle, but with acts of support to ensure the Superhero is free to focus on the world-altering work they are destined to complete.
So, look if you must, though you will never find the Cape. Nor is it likely that you will see The Cape Maker either.
For the world has shifted. The Superhero is no longer the legend of old.
SHE is a Woman.
And the unique man behind her, supporting her, cheering her, encouraging her, and comforting her, is not her servant or side-kick; but the age-old Cape Maker.
He is weaving a new Cape, not of cloth, but of love. The strongest Cape ever created by the Magician of the cloak.
A new age has begun, and a new Superhero(ine) rises up to face never-before seen challenges.
The Cape Maker’s work is needed now more than ever.
