UPDATE: MEKORS OF WAR | FINDLER OF PEACE

Today I officially completed --written and edited-- twenty of the planned thirty chapters!

  And frankly, it’s a really good story.
    Check it out here.

Learning When

“Why does that tree have two tops?”

“It used to be a man with two heads.”

“Men don’t have two heads, Grandma!”

“This one did.”

“Why did he have two heads?”

“He only had half the brains he needed.”

“Needed for what Grandma?”

“To know when he should have left me alone.”

“Is that why you turned him into a tree?”

“Yes it is. Even two brains weren’t enough for him.”

“That’s a funny story grandma. Can I grind up the salamander newt this time?”

Two Wishes

“What?”

“Greetings Mortal, I am––”

“No, I heard that part. What happened to getting three wishes?”

“Ah, I see. A number mythology has grown about the wishes in the 3,678 years since I was last called upon.”

 “So it’s really two wishes not three?”

“Truthfully, the number of wishes depends on several variables.”

“Like what?”

“Largely the intelligence and depth of the wisher’s desire.”

“So, either I’m smarter or want less than the average person who finds a magic lamp?”

“Not necessarily. Different djinn handle wishes differently. I prefer no more wishes than required.”

“But I require three wishes not two.”

“You misunderstand; it’s the number required for the wisher to realize the nature of the wishes.”

“They’re my wishes and their nature is interdependent. Two won’t work without the third. I’d be better off with no…  Hey that’s not fair!”

“And neither is life, nevertheless you undeservingly have life and I don’t. Please replace the lid that I may resume my rightful oblivion.”

The Silent Kind

Many colds ago, more colds than the elders of your elders can call or remember, when all that flew, crawled, or swam knew our All-That-Is was dying, there lived The Silent One. He was not one of us, he did not caw forth and his wings did not fly for his kind was the destroyer-kind. Even so we name him among all-kind and even among The Beautiful Wings at Dusk because one-of-a-kind is not the whole-kind.

The Silent One lived in a nest made of see-through-not-fly-through and he instead of spending his days making bad-air he built another nest inside his living-nest. Outside his living-nest he set many perfect-trees so that we had the biggest nesting of many Wings at Dusk, and we watched him make his inside nest made of destroyer-hard-rock.

For many, many colds the Silent one was nest-building. And every day he hailed us with his wings. Every day he set out feast for the all-kind. Every day he built his inside nest. Then one day The Silent One made his living nest into eat-pieces but did not eat it. Then his inside nest made of destroyer-hard-rock was outside.

But greatest gift-call! We saw the inside-outside-nest was a cave, a cave to our New-Living-All-That-Is! We told all our other kind, those we eat, those who eat us, all those friend-kind, all that flew, crawled, or swam. We told all to come through the Silent-One-Cave and live in the New-Living-All-That-Is. And they all came and we all live here many colds later.

We called to the Silent One too but we did not call the destroyer-kind. Not one of all-kinds wanted any destroyer-kind. But the all-kind named a new kind that day. And the Silent One was first among the silent-kind who look like the destroyer-kind but are not destroyers.

The Silent One stood before the Silent-One-Cave and all The Beautiful Wings at Dusk called to the Silent One many times to come and join us. Each of the all-kind called to the Silent One, telling him to come and bring all of his Silent-Kind.

But he stood and would not come and was sad. And we of the all-kind knew why. One-of-a-kind is not the whole-kind, but even the Silent One could not tell which among the destroyer-kind were truly of the silent-kind. So for the good of the all-kind the Silent One, only one among the silent-kind, closed off forever the Silent-One-Cave.

Remember the silent-kind! Remember the Silent One!

___

Prompted by some very noisy crows in my backyard and the release of U.N. International Panel on Climate Change (see CNN summary or IPCC original docs). 

Orientation

You remember me Buddy? I’m the guy who helped you and then you turned around and just shit all over my life. Now I don’t want to hurt you and I’m going to let you go, but there’s something I want you to know before I do. So sit the hell down or so help me I’m going to take this pipe off my shoulder and start swinging for fences.

Good, now listen.

Some people get glass ceilings on their way up, something they don’t know is there until they bump into it. Me, the only regular roof I’d ever had over my head is neon and it’s followed me around my entire life. And you know it’s amazing what you can get used to if you don’t care.

But two years ago my friend goes and shares his drugs with the wrong people. And maybe I shouldn’t have, but he’s got kids and needed his job, so I took the rap. Probation and rehab for a guy with no wife, no kids, and no habit was a breeze. It was a little hard to get another job but I did and put it all behind me.

Then last year I lost my temper a little with my brother in-law. Fact is the people who were supposed to stop him from beating on my little sister all had some reason why they really couldn’t do it. So I got anger management and community service. Now it’s very hard to get another job, and by the time I do get one I’m really pretty mad about this whole roof thing.

But I’d just started my fifth new gig last week when something funny happened. I was speeding down the road in my new boss’ brand new truck chasing after this Lexus and I suddenly just knew it was going to end badly for me. Oh, I didn’t know how yet, but I was thinking I already knew why. People out there think I’m trash. They think I live as trash and that someday I’ll die as trash. They’re okay with sticking it to me because I don’t know how to climb the ladders you all have on the other side of my roof.

Then I think maybe’s there’s something to that ‘cause my best friend figured it out how to do it, he’s got a great a job now. He’s also a little more careful with his drugs, but that’s only based on what I hear. Apparently I’m too low on his ladder now for even a phone call hello. ‘Course there’s some like my sister. Much as I love her I’m not sure she’s ever gonna climb up from her shitty husband. And then there’s people like my boss who seem born with a plus size ladder up their ass. He didn’t see your Lexus driving down the road or your kid hanging out the back door. And since he’s insisting that I tried to steal his car–

No, no, shhh. I’m sure you have a very good reason why you lied. But I helped you, you lied, and now it doesn’t matter what your reason is. Everybody’s got reasons for the less than stellar stunts they pull, and they all think they’re pretty good reasons. That’s the system, see, your reasons only ever have to be good enough for you, my reasons only ever have to be good enough for me. And that’s my point, see? That’s just what I realized in my boss’ truck: you and me have our good enough’s going different directions.

I’ve been swimming along in your toilet bowl here, always doing the right thing as best I can, while you people up there put your ladders on top of roofs like mine and haven’t got a clue what you’re doing to people down here. So, today I decided to pull you down and tell you. You were my last strike, Buddy, my last nail. You finished off my neon roof and now all you and your people are ever going to do when you look down at me is see that nice bright warning roof over a box of toxic sewer trash.

Well I got news for you Buddy. No box can hold you down if you get the right tools.  And when I get out of this box, I’m going to be standing there at the bottom of all your specially laid ladders taking a real hard look at your system while I still have those right tools in my hands. Then you and your people up there better hope and pray we all still think ‘up’ is in the same direction.

Thanks for your time Buddy. I hope you climb… really far.