One true king knew when to step aside and give up the reins of power—to remove his crown and relinquish his kingdom—all for the sake of glimpsing, just once in a lifetime, the face of a holy child.
—Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

We returned to our places, these Kingdoms, / But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation, / With an alien people clutching their gods.
–T. S. Eliot, Journey of the Magi