The Parable of the Super Pawn

One day while teaching, Josh was asked, ”Teacher, how is such a small portion of a small fraction of our political system bringing the whole system to a standstill?”

Josh spoke thus:

Two children were playing chess.

“I’m taking you’re queen,” the one child said to the second child.

“You can’t take my queen,” the second child said, “If you take my queen, I’ll take your knight.”

“Your queen is worth more than my knight,” the first child said, “You can go ahead and take my knight.”

“I’ll take your knight with my pawn,” the second child said.

“I don’t care if you use your pawn,” the first child said, “I’ll still have your queen.”

“My pawn will be more powerful than your queen,” the second child said.

“The queen is always more powerful than a pawn,” the first child said.

“My pawn is a super pawn,” the second child said.

“There’s no such thing as a super pawn,” the first child said, “A pawn is just a pawn.  A pawn is nothing.”

“I can take your king with my super pawn,” the second child said.

“You can’t take my king,” the first child said, “A pawn can only move one square.”

“This is a super pawn,” the second child said, “A super pawn can do anything.  A super pawn can move up and back.  A super pawn can move sideways.  A super pawn can move in diagonals.”

“That’s what a queen does,” the first child said, “You only have one queen.  And I’m about to take it.”

“If you take my queen,” the second child said, “I’ll take your king with my super pawn.  My super pawn is better than a queen.  My super pawn can move like a knight, too.  A super pawn can do everything.”

“There’s no such thing as a super pawn,” the first child said.

“There is too,” the second child said, “And if you take my queen, I’ll use my super pawn to take your king.”

“Well look,” the first child said, “I just took your super pawn with my queen.”

“And I take your queen with my pawn,” the second child said, “Oh, and checkmate.”

“You cheated,” the first child said, “You were going to use your super pawn.”

“There’s no such thing as a super pawn,” the second child said.