WHEN THE SPIRIT OF SHORTAGE PASSED OVER THE PEOPLE OF WE

Just the other day, a long time ago in a world called Farawaynearby, there lived a people called the People of We. Now the People of We, all their lives and all their generations had been the slaves of the People of Them. The People of Them lived in great cities with great wealth that had been built on the backs of the People of We. The People of We had nothing of their own. They could not decide for themselves how to live their own lives. The People of We were always the victims of Them. This caused great discontentment and despair to pass among the people from generation to generation; like bitter wine being poured from one cracked vessels to another in a dark room. More than anything the People of We desired to live lives based on their own consciences; to decide for themselves their own destiny; to live lives free of the tyranny of Them. One day a prophet came to the ghetto where the People of We lived (a ghetto is the place where the People of Them kept the poor people of we so they could get out) the prophets name was Mostly. Now Mostly was mostly a righteous man and mostly respected by most of the people most of the time and Mostly, mostly knew what was going on. Now Mostly had received a great vision of a many-faceted, multi violet flower which floated in the sky. The flower had spoken to him with the voice of the great spirit; the great spirit whose name is All Of Us. The great spirit of All of Us had told Mostly that he must go to the king of Them whose name was Never and tell king Never that the People of We must go free

Mostly was very frightened by this idea because he was a shy and humble man who stuttered and disliked confrontation. But Mostly had a wife whose name was Always. Now Always, always had a heart full of love, always had a tongue covered in forgiveness and was always respected by all of the people: but most of all she always new what Mostly meant to say. So Mostly and Always determined that together they could confront King Never. Now this was no easy thing to do since King Never was surrounded constantly by his high priests who were called the Police. Now the Police were often devious and violent and it was very difficult to get an audience with King Never. Because of the horrible abuse that you would receive at the hands of the police. But after a great deal of effort and a long time in trying and suffering insults and abuse, Always and Mostly got to plead their case directly to King Never. Mostly. So it was that they found themselves in the great hall of king Never which was filled with the most supposedly wise and the self assumingly learned people in the land; who immediately began to ridicule Mostly and Always for their plane and totally unfashionable cloths. But Mostly and Always proudly ignored the abuse and approached the grey throne of NOOOO where King Never sat scowling and began plead their case. They told King Never that the Great Spirit of All of Us told them that the People of We must go free. “Never” cried King Never, which was his favorite thing to say, never shall the People of We be free because the People of We are slaves in their hearts and will never amount to anything more than to be our servants. They cannot think for themselves because their hearts and mind are empty like sheep.

So Mostly and Always proceeded to show King Never many amazing signs and wonders of the power of the Great Spirit of All of Us, they drew down fire from the sky and wind and rain they caused the very earth to shake but the Police, King Never’s high priests, planted evidence amongst the great signs and wonders that Mostly and Always displayed and this caused King Never to doubt the power of the Great Spirit of All of Us and to disbelieve. King never laughed and said, “I am not impressed with the tricks of country witches; my police have some tricks of their own” at which point Always and Mostly were promptly handcuffed and pepper sprayed. Mostly and Always despaired deeply and they prayed to the Great Spirit of All of Us. Now the Great Spirit of All of us heard their prayers. Quite suddenly Mostly and Always stood up and the handcuffs fell from them as if they were toys. Their close magically flew of them and as they stood their shining and necked they began to spin round and round with their hands upraised chanting in a unknown tongue; for this was the most sacred manner of prayer amongst the people of we. When the police tried to approach a great circle of flames came up around Mostly and Always to protect them. Now all of the supposedly wise and self assumingly learned people in the great hall of king never had NEVER beheld such a sight. They held were spellbound and no one spoke a word for a very long time. It could have been days; it could have been hours no one knows how long they stood their. Then magically Always and Mostly began to float out of the room up and out the highest window giggleling and laughing like little children as they went, because they had never floated out a window before and they rather enjoyed it.

Now the great spirit of all of us descended deep into the underworld. There, deep in the center of the world where the furnace of creation is kept, the Great Spirit of All of Us found a terrible ally who was from the foundation of the earth, whose name I can hardly bring myself to utter, the terrible spirit named I’m Sorry There’s Just not Enough! Now the terrible spirit of I’m Sorry There’s Just not Enough was the spirit of shortage, of famine, of mistrust, and of greed. The Great Spirit of All of Us set the Spirit of Shortage on the face of the land. Meanwhile Always and Mostly floated back to the ghetto and warned the People of We what was to happen. Mostly and Always told the People of We to go to their homes and light great fires in the hearths of their homes and that they should do the ancient shuffling dance of their people round the hearths in the center of their homes and they should focus on their intent, their great shining intent to be free and that they should sing new songs of their intent. Now the light of their songs was so bright and so beautiful and their intent so pure it was like the light from that one candle that gently and persuasively can hold back the endless tides of night.

That night the Spirit of I’m Sorry There’s Just not Enough moved over the great cities of Them and every home where shortage deceit and greed already dwelled in the hearts of the people; there the terrible spirit of I’m Sorry There’s Just not Enough laid the people to waste. But in the homes where the fires were lit and the people danced and sang their new songs, the Spirit of Sorry There’s Just not Enough found no place and Oh the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth that was heard that night in the Great cities of Them.

In the morning when the People of We peered out from their homes and saw the terrible destruction that had been visited on the great cities of Them. The people of We saw their chance and fled into the wilderness. When the People of Them saw that the People of We had fled they rallied their forces and pursued them to the edge of the great waters which are called The Sea of The Fear of The Unknown. Now the terrible Sea of The Fear of The Unknown was for each person what he or she feared most. Some looked into the waters and saw a great sea of flames. Others looked into the ocean and saw a great pit of snakes and still others heard the hungry cries of their children. Now Mostly and Always told the people they must sing their bright burning songs of intent and so the people joined hands and began to sing. And the power of their songs turned the Great The Sea Of The Fear Of The Unknown into shimmering flower petals which gently floated into the sky. As the People of We passed through the shimmering curtains of flower petals they could pluck them from the sky and eat them and the petals had the power to heal their hearts of their many generations of slavery. But when the People of Them came to the edge of Sea of the Fear of the Unknown they did not have songs to sing. They had only fear and the lust of tyranny in their hearts so the great waters closed in around them and they were never heard from again.

The People of We by and by came to their promised land, a land so full of abundance, that equity and love passed amongst the people like honey being poured from one cut crystal jar to another, when lit and warmed by the morning sun. So it is that every year the People of We celebrate a great feast. Teach their children of the People of Them and their many generations of slavery. Teaching their children of the power of The Great Spirit of All of Us and how they had been delivered by the power of their intent. Now Mostly and Always had given the people a tradition where at their great feasts they always set one extra place at every table, one more place then there were people at the feast. Because Mostly and Always had told them that one day one of THEM just might show up and that this is not something that the People of We should fear. In fact they should hope and pray for the People of Them to some day make it across the great unknown to have their hearts be chanced by the Great Spirit; because the Great Spirit had made the People of We a promise; that HERE in the Land of We there would always be just enough for all of us.