THE PASTURE OF DENIAL

Awareness and his two servants Enlightenment and Illumination stand just outside the castle, at the servant door, ready to enter. All around the mountain is the blackened sky, and thick storm clouds hovering over the castle. The sky is so black that its density is lost. It is as if King My Way had painted a canvas with deep rich black paint over the entire scene, all except for where Awareness and his servants stood. For a large area around them is drenched in daylight. The light was so bright that it penetrates the darkness of the clouds and dissolves its existence. Blue skies and luscious green grass surrounds them, with white pillow clouds over their heads.

“We can’t enter the castle like this,” Awareness frantically explains. “We will surely be found out. I knew this was a bad idea. I was afraid of the dark so I asked for light but I never imaged that I would have this kind of problem. We better go back.”

“But Awareness, you MUST know that so much is counting on us reaching our goal,” Enlightenment reminds Awareness.

“Yes Awareness, I am sure we can come to some kind of mutual understanding,” Illumination adds.

“But the contrasts of our worlds are far too great for us to blend in unnoticed,” Awareness says. “No, we better go back.”

“…But what about Castle Glade?” Enlightenment and Illumination plead in unison.

“If only you guys had some kind of dimmer switch.” Awareness says quietly as if speaking to himself.

“But we do! WE DO!” Enlightenment and Illumination chorus together amazed that they didn’t think of it themselves.

So Enlightenment and Illumination dim down their existence to an obscurity that is just light enough for them to see their way around and not bring any attention to themselves. It was then that Awareness remembered what Wisdom said at the last class he attended, “to the degree of light there is darkness.” He realized that she was saying that there were various stages of light to contrast the various stages of darkness.

They come upon a pasture in the castle, which was called the Pasture of Denial. In this pasture there are a flock of ostriches, each with their heads stuck in the ground. Next to the hole they have their heads stuck into is a mailbox with the name of each ostrich. There is Detached, Disinterested, Unconcerned and Aloof. In the far corner of the pasture there is a family of ostriches with four babies, each with their heads stuck in the ground. Their names are Whatever, I Don’t Want to Hear It, I Don’t Want to Deal with It and I Can’t Be Bothered with It. Standing besides them are their giant parents, the melancholy male Indifference and the impassive female Apathy.

At the south end of the pasture there is a farmhouse. Awareness and his two servants walk up to the farmhouse and knock on the door. Living in the farmhouse are Procrastinator and his wife Avoidance with their children, Put Off, Ignore and Neglect. They also have a set of lazy triplets, Dawdle, Dilly Dally and Delay. Procrastinator opens the top half of a Dutch door. Upon doing so Awareness notices that the house is filled with filth. Procrastinator and his family are walking in it up to their waists. It moves like fluid as they wade through it. Now the filth is made up of petty differences, personality conflicts, unresolved disagreements and un-forgiven resentments. Awareness is so overcome by the sight he is compelled to ask.

“Excuse me sir, but why is it that you and your family are wallowing in such filth?”

“Well, it was not always like this.” Procrastinator explains, “When we first moved in, the house was immaculate. You could eat off the floors, the counters were squeaky clean and the windows sparkled. After the first day I put a garbage can under the kitchen sink and as it became full, I asked my son, Put Off, to take out the garbage and throw it into the black hole of forgetfulness. He told me he would take care of it later but never got around to it, and so the garbage spilled onto the kitchen floor. The next day I told my son, Ignore, to clean up the mess, take out the garbage and throw it into the black hole of forgetfulness but he didn’t pay any attention to me, and so the garbage spilled out into the living room and dining room floors. The next day I told my son,

Neglect, to take out the garbage and throw it into the black hole of forgetfulness but he failed to perform what was expected of him, and so the garbage flowed into the back rooms and bedrooms. Then I told the triplets to take out the garbage, but Dawdle wasted time, Dilly Dally goofed off and Delay kept postponing the inevitable.

Finally I said to my wife, Avoidance, ‘Honey we have got to get this place cleaned up. We are up to our butts in this mess and if we don’t get this cleaned up soon we will be buried in this filth.’ ‘Procrastinator,’ she said, ‘the filth is coming in at such a rate we cannot get it cleaned up fast enough. We would be better off moving than cleaning.’ Well, I tended to agree with her but we just haven’t gotten around to it yet.”

Awareness and his two servants simply look at one another with amazement and excuse themselves as they take their leave. As they walk back through the Pasture of Denial they meet one of the ostriches, Aloof. Aloof introduces Awareness and his companions to his wife, Withdrawn, who backs away and hides behind her husband.

“And these,” Aloof says to the three, “are my children, Pout, Sulk and Brood.”

Awareness notices that Brood is sitting on the Nest of Offense and looks quite puzzled at the sight. Aloof, seeing Awareness’s interest in the sight replies, “She lays six eggs at a time and characterizes each one with a name as she lays them. She identifies them as: Insulted, Ignored, Annoyed, Rejected, Put Down and Criticized. She feels each one all day long until they hatch. The only problem is they all hatch into Resentment.”