Koinonia in the Chronicles of Prydain

I am reading and discussing the Chronicles of Prydain with one of my friends from the lab. It's a classic good-and-evil tale in which through dangerous quests a boy grows into a man. I'd read them before as a kid, but since my friend loves fantasy and was looking for something to read (and I am always looking for good discipleship stories for the kiddos -- especially ones that will help my boys grow into men), I thought I'd recommend this and join him in it (I didn't remember it all that well, due to the time since I'd read it). Lloyd Alexander has a lot right, and there are copious hidden gems (some not-so-hidden) about sin and righteousness and what it means to become a man scattered throughout the text. My favorite from The Black Cauldron is the personification of pride in Ellidyr, how he eventually comes to brokenness, and how that brokenness leads to self-sacrifice. Somehow the tale lends clarity to my own pride.

But I digress. Now we are reading The Castle of Llyr together and I ran across this gold nugget about koinonia [my notes for those unfamiliar with the story in brackets]:

"He [Taran, the Assistant Pig-Keeper] turned to Gwydion [the Prince of Don]. 'I remember, too, when a Prince of Don aided a foolish Assistant Pig-Keeper. Is it not fitting now for the Pig-Keeper to aid a Prince [Rhun, the bumbling princeling whose life Taran had been saving the whole novel]?'

'Whether it be Prince or Pig-Keeper,' said Gwydion, 'such is the way of a man. The destinies of men are woven one with the other, and you can turn aside from them no more than you can turn aside from your own.'"

Permit me a few brief illustrations/parallels:

1. There are no lone rangers in humanity, especially not in the Body of Christ. We can't sever ourselves from community and pretend that others' lives don't impact our own. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" (1 Cor. 12:21)
2. The natural response of a man to being aided is to aid others who need it. Same goes with our spiritual walks with Christ. Does this evoke 2 Tim. 2:2 to anyone else? A man of God responds to being discipled by discipling others whom he can help grow in Jesus. This isn't dependent on where you are (be you Prince or Pig-Keeper, spiritually) - there is always someone less mature than you that you could pour into.
   

Lloyd: The way of a man is to live in community and share your growth with others!