“Mr. Fix It!” Mr. Nice Guys exclaims. “This is my new friend Awareness and his two servants Enlightenment and Illumination. I was telling them about our invention. When I told them about you they said they just had to meet you.”
“Welcome,” Mr. Fix It says, “come in and I will introduce you to my family.”
The four men enter the cabin. It is a mess. Awareness is embarrassed to even be there. He has never seen such a house in disarray. I won’t even venture to describe it.“This is my wife, I’m Sorry,” Mr. Fix it introduces her to Awareness and his companions.
“I’m sorry for the mess,” She apologizes.
Awareness searches for some kind of polite response. “O that’s O.K. It looks lived in.”
“This here’s my oldest boy, Reason”. Mr. Fix it introduces his son. “He has two pet snakes, ‘On and on’ and ‘Relentless’. They rap themselves around a problem and refuse to let go. They are very talented.”
“Please to meet you.” Awareness bows.
“I will make some tea,” I’m Sorry tells her guests. “Would you like sugar or honey?”
“Sugar, please”. Awareness answers.
“I’m sorry I’m all out of sugar,” She replies. Awareness stares awkwardly at her.
“I’d like honey,” Enlightenment says.
“Honey for me too,” Illumination says.
“And these are the twins,” Mr. Fix It continues his introductions. “Beg and Plead, and over there,” Mr. Fix it points to the back porch, “we have a set of Siamese twins that are attached at the hip. Their names are Panic and Desperation. They never comb their hair, their shirt is always buttoned wrong and their shoes are never tied.
“How long have you been a handyman, Mr. Fix It?” Awareness asks.
“Since I was a small boy,” Mr. Fix It replies, “I can remember when I fixed my first broken toy. I have it right here.” Mr. Fix It reaches into a broken draw in an end table with broken legs. He pulls out a pair of broken roller skates with missing bolts that hold the two ends together. In the place of the bolts are five raps of duct tape around each of the skates holding the ends together, “Pretty handy eh?” Mr. Fix It gloats.
“Oh yeah,” Awareness exclaims. “Ingenious!”
“See!” Mr. Nice Guys praises. “I told you he was a genius”
Awareness turns to Mr. Nice Guy and smiles.
I’m Sorry walks back into the… I want to say living room, but there could be dead things laying around here somewhere, anyway, she comes into the room with the tea poured into five different cups, each one with the handle broken off. “I’m sorry about the cups. I hope the tea is not too hot,” She apologies.
“I’m sure it is just fine,” Awareness answers. “Tell me how about some of your projects”. Awareness asks Mr. Fix It.
“Well,” Mr. Fix It thinks for a moment. “I can tell you about a project that I did just yesterday. It was at the Recreation Center. They were having a pluming problem”. Mr. Fix It winks at Awareness. “That’s what I do best. The sink in the kitchen had a small drip. I was called up to fix it, so I piled my sons into the van and we drove on down to the Recreation Center. When we arrived, I had Reason go in first to take a look at the problem. So Reason goes in and begins to speak with the leak. ‘Come on leak’. He says. ‘This is no way for you to behave. You’re being entirely too extravagant. Think of all the water that you’re wasting. Look at it. It’s all going down the drain, precious, life-giving water…’ Reason goes on with his argument for about an hour to no avail. ‘Well,’ he says, ‘you’ve left me with no other choice’. So, Reason reaches into his tool bag and pulls out his two pet snakes, ‘On and on’ and ‘Relentless’. The first thing they do is rap themselves around the problem, then squeeze and squeeze. They squeeze so hard they break the pipes. And up shoots a fountain of water spouting like a geyser. Then the twins run in and Beg begins ringing his hands and beseeching the pipes, ‘Please, Please stop gushing! You are making such a mess!’ Then Plead choruses in appealing to the pipes, ‘Stop the waste! Stop the waste!’ But the water keeps gushing out. So Panic and Desperation run into the room and Panic sets off several alarms and begins running around in a frenzy screaming at the top of his lungs, ‘O THE HORROR, THE HORROR,’ while Desperation in a despondent blue funk takes out his guitar and begins to sing the blues in a fatal attempt to fix the pipes that are so obviously broken beyond repair. Finally, I come in with my trusty Pipe Wrench and begin beating the leak into submission until the pipes eventually break off at the main and flood the entire Recreation Center. But my wife made everything better when she came in and said, ‘I’m Sorry’”.Awareness and his companions along with Mr. Nice Guy take their leave from the cabin of Mr. Fix It after they thank him and his family for their hospitality and the interesting story. They head deeper down into the rut.
“Mr. Nice Guy,” Awareness asks, “I was wondering, what is your purpose?”
“My purpose,” Mr. Nice Guy replies.
“Yeah,” Awareness repeats, “your purpose. Why do you exist?”
“You know,” Mr. Nice Guy marvels, “I don’t think that thought has ever entered my mind.”
“I only ask for one reason,” Awareness continues, “it has only just recently occurred to me that I am not conscious of my purpose. I am broadening my consciousness on the subject in hopes to discovering what my purpose is.”
Mr. Nice Guy appears to be distracted by his own thoughts in that he didn’t even hear a word of what Awareness was saying. “It is very intriguing that you ask that question. There must be a reason why I exist. I suppose that I am not here simply to take in the stale air of this rut. Perhaps I am here to please everyone else, to be their whipping boy. After all I do take a lot of abuse you know. I spend a lot of my time trying to please everyone I meet. Funny thing about it though, I wind up pleasing no one. If it wasn’t for Mr. Fix It I think that I would go completely out of my mind. Perhaps it will be helpful to me if you were to define what you mean by ‘purpose’.”
“Yes,” Awareness replies, “I believe you are right. Hmm, let me see. I am not sure how to define it. I don’t mean, ‘What am I to do with my life as far as a profession.’ It has a far deeper meaning. There have been great men and women who have lived, who were so caught up in their purpose that they sacrificed their very lives. And by doing so they fulfilled their purpose. Still, I don’t know how to define what I mean by purpose. When I look at the definition in the Lexicon of Words I find that the definition falls short of my expectations.”
“Well,” Mr. Nice Guy adds, “one thing that comes to mind is when I think of the purpose for my existence I imagine that there is Someone, Something beyond me in control of that purpose. Therefore that would mean that my purpose may be beyond my comprehension and would not be MY purpose but WHOEVER”S purpose for me.”
“Yes,” Awareness agrees, “I do not doubt that, however, I do believe that our Creator, who has given us that purpose also desires for us to discover it so we may be partners in fulfilling it. Everyone whom I have met who has conscious knowledge of their purpose finds great joy in fulfilling it.”
“Well, that makes perfect sense,” Mr. Nice guy smiles in agreement.
“So,” Awareness says to his companions and Mr. Nice Guy, “What would you think if we were to help Mr. Nice Guy explore the possibility of discovering his purpose?”
“Can that be done?” Mr. Nice Guy asks.
“I am not sure,” Awareness says with uncertainty, “but it can’t hurt. Because I have a great feeling of satisfaction helping you become more consciously attentive to your purpose. I think it has something to do with discovering mine also. What do you think?” Awareness asks Enlightenment and Illumination.
They smile and nod in agreement.
“Well then,” Awareness says as if he were taking on a school project for a final exam. “How shall we begin?”
“I suppose asking Mr. Nice Guy some direct questions might be a good place to begin.” Enlightenment says.
“Good idea,” Awareness claps his hands together and then pauses, “What kind of questions?”
“How about,” Illumination thinks aloud, “Do you like who you are?”
Everyone looks at Mr. Nice Guy while he thinks of the answer.
“I am not sure,” Mr. Nice Guy replies, “sometimes I think I am a really bad person and that is why I have no friends and so I do everything I can to try to impress people and I make sacrifices for everyone, but I wind up being used and taken advantage of. Other times I think I am ‘so good’, and surely everyone loves me and wants to be like me. But I don’t think I am, really, either one. Inside I think I am no different than anyone else but my shame seems to overpower me. I hate conflicts and I will do anything I can to not make anyone angry with me. I hate it when others are angry, especially at me. I feel like I am really bad and it rips me apart inside. I abhor the pain that it gives me. When I am rejected for any reason I feel worthless. I try to treat everyone the way I want to be treated and I think, because I do that, I ought to be happy. The only problem is that it doesn’t make me happy. People take advantage of me and think I am weak because I am sensitive. Many people laugh behind my back and I am never included in the events that others partake of together. I feel like I am on the outside looking in. I guess you can say that I just don’t like who I am so I am always trying to pretend I am someone else. But that doesn’t work either. That’s why I think I live in this rut. My rut is so great that everyone in this community voted me to be its caretaker. Even though I smile I am not a happy guy. I don’t really think I am very nice either.
You know I have this other neighbor. His name is Performer. He is married to Pretend. His children are Fake, Hypocrite and Try Harder. Now Try Harder has this little annoying dog whose name is Strife. All the while Try Harder performs Strife barks and barks and barks. The harder Try harder tries, the louder Strife barks. He lives in the rut too.”
“I think I am beginning to understand your purpose, Mr. Nice Guy.” Awareness says.
“Oh pray tell kind sir.” Mr. Nice Guy replies.
“First of all, I see your greatest purpose is as a Guardian of Castle Glade.” Awareness begins, “It appears to me that you are masking some great wounds that have occurred many years ago, that have really never healed. Perhaps it occurred during the abandonment of Castle Glade’s caretakers and the inhabitants were left here to fend for themselves. Possibly because of that abandonment, the inhabitants believed that it was because of something that they had done, bringing great shame upon the entire domain. This also made the castle vulnerable and open to the attack of King My Way. You should not feel guilty of who you are. You do serve a purpose, and you are very nice.”
“Thank you so much,” Mr. Nice Guy says to Awareness, then turns to Enlightenment and Illumination, “Thank you also, O mighty lords of light.”
“You are very welcome, sir,” Enlightenment and Illumination say in unison.
“I must take my leave now,” Mr. Nice Guy says, “I will never forget you.” Mr. Nice Guy begins his hike back to his home at the Logjam of Human Effort.
Further and further the three walk down into the Rut of Complacency. Quietly and calmly they walk together in the peaceful serenity of the rut.
“I can get used to this,” Awareness says to his companions.
“Yes, this is quite restful,” Enlightenment replies with a yawn, “but I am feeling very sleepy.”
“I’m becoming drowsy myself,” Illumination says not quite understanding why.
It suddenly occurs to Awareness that the rut is affecting them and if they do not find a way out soon they will be forever lulled into a false sense of security.
It is then that Awareness notices that they are splashing water as they walk.
Upon realizing this they stop. The three look at each other, they stand frozen for a moment and then Awareness yells, “RUN!” All three run as hard as they can down deeper into the rut. Awareness knows they can never make it back to the elevator before the logjam breaks. So they run deeper into the rut, not knowing if there is an escape. They look frantically to each side of the rut to see if there is some kind of a crack they can crawl through or some kind of a cliff they can climb. The walls are smooth as granite and tall as mountains. So they run. Awareness looks back just as the logjam breaks. “RUN!” He yells, “RUN FOR YOUR LIVES.” They run, splashing up water as they race. The more they run, the harder it becomes because the water is getting deeper. Awareness begins to doubt if they will ever find a way out. Just when it looks like all hope is gone Awareness notices a door on the side of the wall further down the rut on the right. Awareness points to the door. The others nod and run with all their strength to the door. The two servants run through the doorway and just when Awareness arrives at the door he looks back and on the wall of the water racing towards him is the face of the demon, Rage with his mouth wide-open eager to devour Awareness and anything else in his path. Awareness stands there in horror unable to move. Just then Enlightenment and Illumination grab Awareness and pull him in and the wall of water slams the door shut behind them. The three lay on the floor panting with exhaustion.
In the Tower of Perspective Feelings and Wrong Focus stand post reacting to two silent alarms that have gone off in the southeast quadrant of the castle? Feelings calls King My Way to get directions on how he is to react.
On the teleprompter King My Way’s head image appears.
“What is it Feelings?” King My Way asks impatiently.
“There had been several silent alarms that have gone off in the southeast quadrant of the castle your Lowness”.
“What areas have been compromised?” The king asks
“The Trash Compactor has blown and the Logjam of Human Effort has collapsed releasing the River Rage flooding the Rut of Complacency”. Feelings explain.
“I will send in Hardly Noticeable to investigate. In the meantime have Wrong Focus project the Spotlight in that quadrant and see what you come up with.”
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