OLD MAN STUFFER

Next to the Pasture of Denial there is a tall square brick building with a terrible noise coming out of it. This raises Awareness’s curiosity. He and his two companions excuse themselves and walk towards the building. As they approach the noise grows louder. The door is slightly ajar and so Awareness, Enlightenment and Illumination walk in. In the center of the room there is a giant Trash Compactor. Working on a tall ladder is an old man busy stuffing stuff into the huge storage device of refuse consolidation. At first he is so busy he doesn’t even notice them walk in, even though the room grows much brighter with their presence. And then all of a sudden he turns and notices them. “And what is it that you want?” the old man asks.

“Sir, my name is Awareness and these are my servants, Enlightenment and Illumination. We are on a mission sent by Origin, king of the Land of New Beginning to find the Wounded Child, Innocence. May I ask your name? ”

“Name,” The old man replies, “Don’t know if I ever had one, been too busy for one. Folks around here just call me Old Man Stuffer.”

“What is your purpose here?” Awareness asks,

“Purpose?” the old man answers, “I stuff, all day and all night I stuff. I stuff all the garbage that Castle Glade takes in. I stuff all the fears, all the pain, all the frustrations and all the hurt. I stuff all the disappointments, all the unfulfilled dreams and all the sorrows. Every tear that is held inside, every outrageous desire unattained, every act of un-forgiveness, unspoken resentment, and repressed hostility I stuff. That is my purpose.”

“How long have you been doing this?” Awareness asks

“Well,” Old Man Stuffer answers proudly. “When I first started I was a small boy and the Trash Compactor was a small unit. It was two feet high, one foot wide and three feet deep. Over the years as I grew, so did the Trash Compactor. Look at it. Now it is twenty feet tall, ten feet wide and thirty feet deep,” Old Man Stuffer beams with pride. “It was once cubic, but lately it is getting rather cylindrical and making funny noises and blowing off a lot of steam. The place has smelled a little weird lately too, although I am usually too busy to notice.”

Awareness and his companions hadn’t been too busy. They were just about ready to run out to catch their breath.

It is then that everyone notices the Trash Compactor start to move around. It appears that while Old Man Stuffer had been distracted, speaking with Awareness and his companions, all the ingredients in the compactor had time to cook and the pressure of the gases fermenting were turning the compactor into a bomb. Awareness and his companions quickly run out side. However, Old Man Stuffer yells,

“I’D BETTER GET BACK TO WORK!” Hurriedly he runs up the ladder and begins packing more stuff into the compactor.

Outside Awareness and his companions watch as the compactor sets off a volume of steam, lets out a loud whistle and then without any further warning explodes, sending out a smell that is so strong that it causes many of the surrounding inhabitants to pass out.

Awareness looks puzzled at the scene before him. He shakes his head in amazement.

“One thing I know,” Enlightenment comments, “You can’t continue to stuff things into a container that has no outlet without experiencing some kind of upheaval. Having a purpose of stuffing things into a Trash Compactor is doomed to boom.”

Illumination nods his head in agreement. “I completely understand how things can get so out of hand.”

Awareness turns to look at the two, continuing to look bewildered. “Why would anyone take on a purpose that had such a negative impact?”

“A purpose is not something that one takes on voluntarily,” Enlightenment replies, “a purpose is something that takes you on. It is what you were born to do. It isyour destiny. Some characters are born in the Land of New Beginnings, some are born in the Land of Uncertainty and others are born in the domain of darkness. Each characteristic carries a label of its purpose. Some characteristics are obvious, some you have to dig into to find what their purpose is.”

“You mean there are good and evil characters?” Awareness asks

“Well,” Illumination replies, “It’s not that simple. You must understand that characters are neither good nor evil, they just are.”

“I don’t understand,” Awareness says.

“Let’s use your friend, Curiosity, as an example then,” Illumination explains, “He is neither good nor evil. However, you view him to be good because you met him in the Land of New Beginnings, in the class of Wisdom. Now, if you met him here you might see him in different light, or darkness, that is. There are those who think curiosity is a good thing, believing that it can inspire you to great heights of wisdom and knowledge. And then there are those who believe that curiosity leads to negative things, such as the old cliché, which says that, ‘Curiosity killed the cat.’ It really depends on where you are looking at it from.”

“I think I understand it a little better when you explain it that way.” Awareness says, but feels very tired suddenly, because of all the excitement. “We had better think of where we are going to sleep for the night”. Awareness snaps out of his daze. Then he remembers that it is always night in Castle Glade.

“We can’t see very far in the dark”. Enlightenment says straining to see beyond the dimness of his light.”

“We will just have to trust that we will eventually see a place where it will be safe to rest,” Illumination adds as he too struggles to see where they could make camp.

Awareness, Enlightenment and Illumination eventually make their camp beside a gentle brook that flows through Castle Glade. The sound of the water gently rolling over the rocks is rather calming and soothing. They take out their blankets and lean against the rocks and trees.