In this instalment Mikhail gets a surprise invitation.
&&&&
At that point Mikhi was asked to attend a small meeting at the Holy House.
There was no service or training session upstairs, so the usual crowd from the basement were set up on the main floor. Only a few others were there with Mikhi. Most were strangers, although he recognized Isabeau and Ian. The seating was a little more formal than he was used to---the group from the basement were sitting on chairs facing everyone else who were sitting audience style.
The tall Asian man with the tired eyes started to speak. “The Old Ones have asked you to come here because we think that it’s time we moved you on to another project. You’ve done good work and we want to know if you are willing to help build and preserve the institution so it will survive and continue to do good work into the future.”
“What we want you to do is undertake a trip in time. We want you to go back to the very founding of the organization called ‘the Old Ones’”. Of course, this brought out a startled response from the people in the audience.
“Of course, I’m not literally meaning that we want you to go back in time. What we mean instead is that we want you to immerse yourself in what we believe was the core cultural experience of being a member of the original Old Ones. We want you to live the life that inspired people to devote the rest of their lives to the multi-generational project that has built the organization. To be blunt, we want to learn if you are ready to join the leadership.” Oddly enough, this brought out if anything a slightly greater startle response than the idea that people were being asked to actually go back in time.
“What we are talking about is an intensive lived experience that captures the essence of what the original Old Ones developed in their communities back in ancient China. To do that, we will be asking you to pack a few things (we’ll give you an itemized list) and come back here on a specific set day. From there, you’ll be driven to a hidden location in the countryside. We’ve specifically chosen you because we know that you don’t have any on-going personal commitments right now, but if you have some needs that should be met (practical stuff---bills that need paying, plants watered, cats taken care of, etc) please write them out, email them to your contacts, and, we will have people who can ‘house sit’ for you. This isn’t going to be a long time commitment, just three weeks. So if you have to tell anyone, say a friend won a vacation trip and can’t take advantage of it because of their work commitments---so they decided to give it to you. We’ll give you some fake brochures that you can show people if anyone thinks that this sounds odd.”
&&&&
If you read the blog, and you can afford it, why not subscribe? You get to choose the amount and Pay Pal and Patreon make it easy to do.
&&&&
At that point, he sat down and the very white old woman with thick, black hair done up in two very thick braids rose to address the group. “That’s just the incidental, practical stuff. What we want you to attend is a monastic setting that will allow you to live in an approximation of an ancient, Elder community. We want you to see what the world would look like if all the annoying, stupid intrusions of superstition, capitalism, sexism, racism, etc, have been purged from society. Also, we want you to have a first-hand experience of what it would feel like to really live in harmony with nature on a day-to-day level. Finally, we want to help you to incorporate a useful mental discipline into your day-to-day life.”
The tall, thin black man with the short white hair finished up. “The value of this program is that it gives your life a ‘reset’ and will allow you start on the ‘first rung’ of the Old One ladder. To use a crude military metaphor, we’re offering you a position as a non-commissioned officer in the organization. When you come back from our ‘basic training’ you’ll be assigned to someone who can act as your mentor and who will work with you as you undertake your first assignment. As your abilities manifest themselves, and opportunities arise, you may end up being asked to do more and more important jobs. And there may be further educational opportunities. But ultimately, we hope that you won’t have any more ambitions than to just become a better human being and to make the world a better place. The Old Ones really don’t like personal ambition and we try to select against it.” He started to sit down, then hesitated and got back up again.
“We can tend to be a little dour in our presentations, so it’s important to understand that we aren’t talking about a life that is just work and no fun. Indeed, we think that---I think I can speak for everyone on this.” (There was a quick nodding of heads around him.) “We agree with the motto of Socrates that ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’. What we are offering is possibly the best life one can live. Life for a purpose worth supporting. Life involved with other people who have the wisdom and understanding to understand your own values and respect them. This is a community where you won’t have to spend most of your life biting your tongue or trying desperately to get people to do something that is very much in their own best interest. You won’t have constantly calculate how much of ‘the Truth’ this person is able to hear before their mind ‘clamps down’ and stops hearing what you have to say.”
“We know who you are. You’ve all spent your life tilting at windmills trying desperately to help the world become a better place. Well, we all started out where you did, and were once sitting in the same chairs that you are now, and, now we want to invite you to join with us in a chain of people that reaches back thousands of years to a group of individuals in a bronze-age culture, who sought to change a profoundly sexist, superstitious, violent, culture into something much better---both for themselves and for future generations.”
He clasped both of his hands into a fist. “WELCOME TO THE OLD ONES” He bowed deeply from the waist, smiled, and, sat down.
&&&&&
Moreover I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!
No comments:
Post a Comment