Across the Sea of Ignorant Lies: A Framing Fantasy-----Part Four

As things turned out, the long years of the King's willful dispensing of ignorant lies throughout the kingdom had turned the great sea slightly acid, enough to melt metal, but not quite enough to eat away wood with any speed. The King had long past refitted his fleet with wooden boats. Somehow this fact was never passed on to the citizens of the beautiful island. The longshoreman said it was because the King feared the free thinkers from the island and wished to isolate them from the mainland.

The neighbor told the great truth to the longshoreman and over a draft of beer together they planned a meeting of all the longshoremen and stevedores from the harbor. "Everyone must hear this great truth" declared the workers, after they had heard the neighbor speak. Soon, the common people of the kingdom had spread the truth far and wide and a mighty call went out to force the King to accept the truth, or face a coup d'etat. Thankfully, the King, knowing the truth and its power all along, capitulated, handing the government over to a council of tradesmen.

The neighbor thanked the longshoreman, and vilified, boarded the sleek hardwood boat given to him by the council and set off for his beloved island to the boisterous fanfare of the people. "The smart man will be happy", he thought. His great truth did change the world after all.

The moral of this story is simple. When attempting to change the world by spreading the truth, the residue of constant falsehood will prevent you from succeeding, if you use only the methods of conventional wisdom. All you need are the simplest of tools, and courage, to get the message across the sea of ignorant lies.

Across the Sea of Ignorant Lies: A Framing Fantasy-----Part Three

The neighbor asked the smart man if he had ever sent anyone to see what had happened to his great ships. Neither the smart man nor the crafty man could answer his question. They were too busy being sad and angry. After all, they had used the best materials known to man to send the great truth, and had failed. "I'll go investigate" said the neighbor. " I want to know why the truth cannot be spread. That's not natural".

The neighbor could only afford a simple wooden boat. The crafty man said " You'll never make it in that flimsy wooden boat. I'll fortify it with metal for you". The neighbor thanked the crafty man and assured the smart man that he would get to the bottom (no pun intended) of this.

The neighbor got into the boat and set sail for the opposite coast. Soon, he began to hear an odd sound, like someone drinking the last few drops of a milkshake through a straw. He smelled a foul smell. He looked all around to see if he could find out what was happening. To his horror he found that the metal reinforcements the crafty man had made were melting way from the wooden shell of his boat.

The neighbor was terribly frightened. Surely the the simple wooden boat would not last the hour, and he would be drowned without ever discovering why these mysterious things had happened. A half hour passed, then an hour, then two, then six. The wooden boat was damaged but after several days journey, the neighbor succeeded in reaching the other side.

The neighbor said a thankful prayer as he stepped from his boat at the kingdom's great port city. He had been thinking about all of the strange circumstances surrounding the smart man's quest and his own harrowing journey. Being quite thirsty from his difficult voyage he visited a local pub and striking up a conversation with a local longshoreman discovered that the royal scientists knew all about the melting metal.

to be continued...

Across the Sea of Ignorant Lies: A Framing Fantasy-----Part Two

The smart man was sad. He couldn't understand why his great truth never reached its destination. The crafty man said "We need a better boat". He crafted a boat of bronze, much stronger than the boat of aluminum. Together they carefully gave the truth to another friend, who carefully put it in the bronze boat and cast off for the mainland. Neither their friend or the truth ever reached the mainland shore.

The smart man was now angry. How could the fake priests get here from the other side when his great truth in its sturdy boats couldn't make it across the sea. The crafty man built an extra powerful ship made of steel. "This will make it across the sea for certain" he said, confidently. With great fanfare they sent the mighty ship off into the night. It never arrived.

The smart man was ready to give up. His great truth was in danger of being lost to the people forever. The king was winning. He went back to his cottage and didn't come out.

One day the smart man's neighbor heard him angrily complaining about his plight. This neighbor had a strange hobby. He spent most of his time figuring out why people said the things they said and did the things they did. He became very curious as to why the fake priests could get here to say their words, but the great truth could not get back across the sea to be heard by the people on the other side. He thought about this for a great while. Then, an idea came to him.

to be continued...

Across the Sea of Ignorant Lies: A Framing Fantasy-----Part One

Once upon a time a smart man, who lived on a beautiful island which was part of a powerful kingdom, discovered a great truth. He knew that the truth would make everyone's life better, throughout the kingdom. He told all his friends the truth but their lives did not improve, because the king's men would not let them use the truth. The smart man thought that if the people across the sea also knew the truth then the entire kingdom would rise up as one and demand that the king let them use the truth. If he didn't they would be strong enough to throw him off the throne and find a new king who would.

The smart man had a problem. How do I get the truth to the people across the sea? I can't swim and I can't even see across the sea, much less throw the truth to the other side. I would travel across the sea myself but the people here need me to be a smart man. I can't leave them alone. Besides, lately, king's men, masquerading as priests, have appeared on the island, saying that the truth is false and that I am silly and not smart at all.

The smart man went to his friend, the crafty man, and told him of his dilemma. The crafty man built him a sturdy boat of aluminum. They wrote the truth on a scroll and gave it to another friend, who was a talented seaman. He cast off toward the mainland in the sturdy aluminum boat with the scroll. The smart man knew that as soon as the truth got to the other side the people would force the king to let them use it to help themselves and the kingdom would prosper. The boat never reached the other side.

to be continued.....

Gettin Sirius

It has come to my attention, after several good jolts to my head from friends I trust, that it's about frakking time that I begin to use this marvel of cyberspace, my Blog, for the porpoise it was intended for. They also have recommended that I, heaven forbid, promote my Blog by informing folks that, verily, it exists. What a concept!!!

Therefore, I will make every effort to post essays of import and substance to it on a semi regular basis. I actually have some relevant content to post and will soon begin installments of "Framing as an Expression of Chakra Energies" by Will Servant hisself. That bastion of self serving prose will be followed by "A Framing Fantasy" which may or may not appear in installments as well.

Most of my meanderings are, as Boots always enjoys reminding me, wordy, and I will have to experiment a bit with the relative lengths of individual posts. Living as we do in the MTV world of short, rapid edits most of us are best served by the literary equivilant of the sound bite. Unless I have the power to capture the imagination of someone such as Will Shakespeare, which I do not, (although I did steal my name partially from him) it is unreasonable for me to expect that readers will follow and digest excessively long posts (like this one is becoming).

We will see what works and I hope that readers will chime in on that and other issues of comparative communication in their comments.