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The Path © 1998 by: Cirse Windom
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Commodity Bondage Service Exchange ~opportunity value trade greed yield risk ruin |
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“ah.... i see you’ve been busy. hungry yet? ready to barter?”
“you know, opportunist, there is more to value than supply and demand.”
“there is?” he asked, half mocking, but interested enough to lean closer.
“there is inherit value which may, for a moment, be overlooked as worthless, but which is priceless just the same. awaiting supply and demand to facilitate immediate recognition can be very foolish.”
opportunist jostled his considerable weight and knelt with his face closer to the grate, so that he might better hear.
seeker leapt and, grabbing opportunist’s mop of hair, held his face smashed between the rungs of the grate.
opportunist grunted and writhed in pain as seeker calmly continued, “you’ve not had vision for some time, but suddenly you must realize that i am able to relieve you of sight. i’ve always been able to, but there has had to be a situation of supply and demand for you to realize that fact. i can supply a swift poke to your eyes, and you demand greatly that i do not. can you clearly see the value in that, opportunist?”
“yes, yes! release me! release me or you’ll not eat!”
“eat? although you likely believe you’ve commandeered my freedom, you must realize that an entity is ultimately sovereign within them selves.”
“no amount of captivity or coercion can dilute the potent concentration of self will that i tend within.... that tends me. not even you, opportunist.”
“my concern at this moment is conveying to you a sense of value: a sense which i may not again have occasion to demonstrate. can you see that even before you knelt, and out of greed, strove to take from me even more than you already have, i was able and prepared to reciprocate that value? able to supply some value of my own, even before there was a demand ~ that i don’t?”
“you have supplied me with an opportunity, and i demand your acknowledgment. i have supplied you with a threat to your sight, and you demand that i abstain. here.... we are interacting in the concept of exchange. but, do you not see that the potential for this situation was within each of us from the beginning? supply and demand, opportunist, whether or not currently applicable, does not negate that potential. there was inherent worth. see that?”
“yes, yes, yes.”
“and there is value even in you.... for, you are teaching me lessons i otherwise might not have assessed ~ you could be teaching your self lessons. should be teaching every wanderer here lessons.” seeker released his adversary. “i have much more value than you are even aware of, opportunist. ignoring the value inherent in all beings, puts you in danger of one day being at the mercy of such value.... putting you, potentially, at the disadvantage of barter.”
opportunist rose and straightened his self. “yes, what you say has merit, indeed value, but.... i take no more here than i give. in fact, i give a great deal more. i provide the necessities by which this society survives.”
“but you take their self reliance, with which they could learn to provide for them selves. you take much, much more than their labor, opportunist.... you take their faith. their knowledge of them selves and their potential.”
“so what.... every one has to make a living don’t they? i don’t see why you think i’m so reprehensible. i simply meet their demand and make a comfortable living from it.”
“but you hold them in bondage, hostage to their needs and the needs of their children. you are forsaking children for your own gain. cultivating, keeping slaves.”
“they are willful victims, seeker. as long as there is some other who is willing to meet their needs then they will pay the price, any price ~ why shouldn’t i be here to profit, as would any other?”
“you perceive to place your self above profit, seeker, but as you your self said ~ there is often hidden value that we are unable to recognize.”
“you say i take more than i realize. well, perhaps you are given more than you realize. whether we take or we are given, still we owe, and are bound to pay. i have simply placed my self in a position to collect.”
opportunist continued. “these wanderers.... they threw rocks at you. do you think they care whether you live or die? they are too preoccupied with scavenging their existence. why do you care so much about them?”
“i care, opportunist, because i am able to empathize with ignorance and fear ~ for i have felt these. i have been these. and i know there is more than these. i care, because i have known and have been compassion ~ and i believe in purpose, promise and possibility.”
“i care enough to try to explain this to one who is so far from understanding as to consider me a fool.”
“opportunist, there is a difference between trade and greed. there must be an equal exchange of values.... not holding a dependent other in bondage to facilitate your greed. trade is meeting one another’s mutual needs. any kind of dependency or need can facilitate bondage, and honor is essential to keep one from oppressing another.”
“service to others is crucial ~ as it is a means of giving back so much of what we receive. and the giver must also receive, so they can continue to give. in trade among human societies, within each of us, is the ability to equally reciprocate that value.”
“to ignore that duty, when we have the means to establish equality ~ to take advantage of one without the means to equalize them selves, is not trade, it’s greed.”
“as you suggested of me, one must be aware that when they become a taker ~ that is, receive more than they give ~ one can never know the extent of the inherent value of exchange. this is why one must always give as much as one can. more, usually, than we first perceive able.”
“otherwise, we are in danger of unknowingly taking more than we are giving back.”
“we must strive for balance. to not share and exchange values and worths, is to discourage compassion and the nurturing of others of the path.... is to facilitate resentment, greed and abuse.... imbalance our selves and our environment.”
“only through receiving can we give ~ only through giving can we receive. we must share equally.... and eventually we will, one way or another ~ for there must always be balance.”
“you are affecting their destiny with your greed, opportunist.” seeker added, “and thusly.... your own.”
“this is my destiny.” countered opportunist.
“you’re not living up to your potential destiny, you are only in the process of discovering your destiny; for these circumstances offer you many opportunities for enlightenment ~ but you ignore them.”
“you are amassing untold consequences. how can you be blind to that?”
“how can you not see that to knowingly harm another and provide only essentials enough to keep them scratching for tomorrow’s essentials, to willfully facilitate the poisoning of the land, air, water, and all inhabitants of the path ~ even those who don’t wish to partake of your system ~ is to affect so many by the actions of one. to usher devastation.... in the interest.... of one.”
“what makes you think you are the supreme lender? debts and assets can be intangible, removed by fate far beyond our immediate perception.”
“eventually you must equalize the power you now wield to collect what you perceive to be due.”
“so what do you sell, that makes you so much better than me?” opportunist demanded. “you say it is wrong to take their faith, but then you are in a position to sell it back.”
“i’m not suggesting i’m any better or worse, only perhaps more aware and as such much more careful of my actions.”
“thankfully, there is still enough of the path beyond the control of opportunists such as your self, that i have been so far able to meet my own needs without resorting to the bondage and surplus trade of any other entity to any other entity.”
“you’re an idealist, seeker.” opportunist grimaced. “living beyond the reality of this moment.... a member, however unwillingly, of my society.”
“i anxiously await to hear what an idealist has to barter, other than the ridiculous ideals which have landed you in this hole in the first place.”
“i am an idealist, yes. so much so ~ that i’m cynical of and question even my own self designed realities.”
“what will you trade then?” opportunist scoffed. “you are truly a vacated fraud!”
“most readily,” seeker began, “we possess surpluses of our selves ~ our skill, our knowledge, our abilities. you should know this better than any one. but, a seller of flesh is no less or more than a seller of intellect. because one is inherent in the other we truly sell both at the same time. even at the expense or exploitation of another. even in the trade of a handful of carrots.”
“there is always potential value, opportunist ~ sometimes elusive, but essential to consider.”
“because it can feed a wanderer, a seed may be of more worth than a stone. enough stones in a sandy dessert, however, can build a shelter. among differing societies i’ve seen stones, seeds and shells symbolize a standard unit of worth. the symbols of worth are irrelevant. standards of worth ~ however relative they all to often are to perceived immediate need ~ remain. wanderers dwelling in a society often devise methods of convenient exchange which seem to sustain a mutually beneficial interdependency among those who chose to participate.”
“regardless of symbolism and relative only to perceived value, with a single standard of exchange and the ability to amass surplus, we become specialized in our production. the larger our society grows, the more specialized become its members.”
“this initially seems desirable; for, it seems easier to produce only one trade commodity than all those commodities which we quite subjectively believe are essential to our survival.”
“i see each member of your society is either assigned or adopts a specific task. i see it is highly specialized, and perhaps as a result of your exclusive authority, members have become highly dependent upon your mitigating presence; for, i see you have taken from them their abilities to care for and nurture them selves, while establishing a system which directs their efforts at caring for and nurturing you.”
“and this is wrong?” opportunist suddenly interrupted. “it is wrong to lead a society who will not lead them selves?”
“every society needs a leader, seeker.” insisted opportunist. “some one who will identify purpose and direct progress.”
“but, societies change. purposes change. progress can become regression. life is not a stagnant process. regardless of a current social system.... whether a dictatorship, socialistic system, republic or democracy, you must realize the fluidity and dynamic nature of social constitution and allow for inevitable transition.”
“i am the transition, i am the dynamic, i, seeker, am the system.” replied opportunist.
“where there is a niche, i see it is filled. the necessity of purpose is largely defined by the ability to fulfill it. that is what fuels the machine of any system.”
“wanderers couldn’t care less of reason as long as they are occupied with fulfilling a specific purpose. this in turn fulfils them. whether a society is technologically evolved matters little. wanderers will always seek means of fulfillment.”
“those of us with the insight and vision to provide that opportunity often find our selves as leaders.”
“i provide a service. i my self fill a niche. you, for all your awareness would be wise to identify your own, or accept the one i’ve provided for you.”
“dependency is necessary.... leadership ~ incidental and a matter of savvy.” opportunist folded his arms impatiently awaiting seeker’s anticipated rebuttal.
“it’s only prudent, though,” insisted seeker, “that any enterprise which affects all beings of the path, be fairly, ultimately, jointly, equally influenced by all beings of the path ~ or at least their representatives when truly unable to do so them selves.”
imploringly seeker searched opportunist’s face for signs of accordance. “we must know with certainty what affects our soils, our waters, our air, our seeds and nutrients which grow from these ~ for, we are all connected.... and the will of one will affect, with certainty, the constitution of another.”
“though many believe we as humans dwell at the top of the food chain, because of the nature of the sphere, the opposite is also true, and we dwell equally.... at the bottom. consuming as we do quantities of nutriment which exist at all levels, we can amass many poisons and pass them infinitely onward, with no available natural means of cleansing future generations.”
“when the basic necessities of existence for the many, are placed within the control of one or even a relative handful of others, whose motivation is often greed....”
“and likewise.... when many, whose motivation is also often greed, strive to exert control over or partake of a single enterprise or entity....”
“there is above all, opportunity.... for abuse.”
“we are all mutually dependent upon the land and water and air and the inhabitants of this path.”
“when we lose our direct dependency upon the direct source of our sustenance and begin to nurture our dependency upon systems and sources of supply, then we are in danger of decimating our very sources of sustenance, and the sources of our sources’ sustenance.”
“we trust those able to produce surplus foods to care for our food sources. and they, who are dependent upon others who perhaps produce surplus shelter materials, trust them to care for their sources.”
“but, because one is removed from the other and preoccupied with sustaining their surplus for trade, abuse occurs which the other is not aware of. not able to influence ~ because we’ve conveniently placed it in the hands of the producer ~ whose motivation is again, often greed.... or simply even a fear of deprivation.”
“we convince our selves of our interdependency within our manifest and chosen systems, and unwilling to honestly examine a negative effect, we simply employ some other to produce a filter which we believe will negate that negative effect.”
“when we are poisoned from that enterprise, we employ some other to produce another, different kind of filter.”
“when we are poisoned from that enterprise, we employ more, different and bigger filters.”
“so willing are we to consider even the possibility of a different realm within which we may dwell ~ a seemingly ultimate filter allowing us to survive the poisoning of all our enterprises ~ that we never once seem to consider or re-examine the ‘systems’ which perpetuate our ‘need’ for all enterprises which lead to the production of, as well as a need for, the filters in the first place.”
“this is how dependent we can become upon sources of supply rather than sources directly.”
“this is how we strive to maintain and nurture our systems and suppliers ~ rather than maintain and nurture the purity and sustainability of sources.”
“this is a great danger manifest by large complex, societies ~ and a threat to the stability of those same societies, as well as every other society and being of the path.”
“the larger a society becomes, the more and more specialized become our individual functions. outside of human systems, nature seems to stabilize by devoting each being to a relatively specific and singular function relative to the whole, and yet, or perhaps and thusly is able to sustain. but nature does not obstruct and destroy sustainability. when we’ve so many humans, each one focusing on depletion without returning, we reduce the survivability chances of any.”
“we seem to easily confuse our relationship with nature. we regard nature as we regard systems of our design. manipulatable and in need of constant management and improvement. but, our systems are prone to defect, limited as they are by our inability to wholistically regard and effectively anticipate beyond an immediate egocentrically need-based perception.”
“nature is not of our design, and not in need of our interference. as humans we tend to create and manage systems so seemingly effective, but which are so actually ineffective, that they grow to create and manage us.”
“we must realize that our mental, physical and emotional capacities to function are predetermined.... limited.... by our evolutional, physiological makeups.”
“therefore, in the interest of furthering specialization, we forget or haven’t the capacity to incorporate the primal knowledge of survival which we truly ought to know and maintain.”
“consider the differences between those from a culture which is of an oral tradition, and those who are of a more technologically advanced culture. consider that the first must nurture only those aspects which contribute, in a primary and most direct sense, to their survival.”
“other cultures, able to rely upon recorded information, can devote more memory and other capacities to other pursuits.... more specialized functions. this can eventually contribute to a demise in the wholistic health of a community of any size.”
“this is why we must structure our thinking in such a way that maximizes our abilities in both the broadest.... meaning wholistic ~ and narrowest.... meaning specialized senses, simultaneously.”
“technological advancement and recession is inevitable. but, beneficial only when we consider how it can maximize benefit for all and at the same time.”
“we must enhance our natural environment upon which we are directly dependent and an integral part of, while at the same time balancing by truly questioning what we feel we must extract from our environment in order that we perceive to thrive. then, we must put back what we’ve taken, as it was when we took it.”
“consider the alternative, opportunist.”
“consider the effects of a society’s singular preoccupation with technological advancement, without the benefit of awareness of sustainability relative to environmental balance.”
“or, consider the effects of a society’s singular preoccupation with stagnation and a loss of technological development. a devotion to perhaps narrow sighted and repetitive functions, without regard for and the consequent benefit of awareness of sustainability relative to environmental balance.”
“consider the disassociated effects of broad distribution and indirect dependency. the consequences of human structured systems which run and manage the humans who created their dependence upon them.”
“to disregard the inevitabilities of such thinking is to usher devastation.”
“until, finally, we are
utterly
dependent....
utterly
poisoned.... “then.... we are as utterly destroyed as our environment.”
“i disagree with your perception, seeker. you are one who seems to dwell outside of society, so how would you know what societies require?”
“there must be control over populations. i am not the tyrant you believe i am. i’m simply filling a need. for lack of direct participation in their own destinies, they’ve assigned their survival to me. it is only fair that i am rewarded for such a burden.”
“we all must exchange something, so that we may gain. of obvious importance to you, is the fruitless quest to restore what you perceive to be imbalance. imbalance, seeker is when you are in a hole.... and i am not. should you be able to fulfill your ridiculous endeavor, you must first gain your freedom; so, whether you like it, you must consider what and how you are able to exchange.”
“do you not see i am fulfilling my quest simply by being in this hole, as equally as you are fulfilling yours by placing me here? which of us has given more already? which of us has taken more from the other?”
“you take up, among other things, my time, seeker. you annoy and aggravate me. i am providing you an opportunity that you are too stubborn and idealistic to recognize. this is your shortcoming. you your self are imbalanced, and i’ve given you occasion.... dare i say opportunity to consider your self."
“i see that you owe me a great deal already.”
“and it so happens you’ve something of value to me which i am willing to exchange. but you deny this. you deny that you must exchange something supposedly inherent within you. what else have you got? you are a wanderer, without possession, without seeming dependency until now. what else.... can you barter that i will consider in trade?”
“opportunist.... i see you are aggravated only because you are unable to take what you desire, and are only appeasing my argumentative behavior in an effort to coerce. though all the while denying it, you must surely realize you are finally at the disadvantage of barter.”
“if i were to barter, opportunist, with you or any other, i would barter my self, my time and my abilities.... a surplus, just like any other.... some means of facilitating equality.”
“but, if i am able to give, then i give.”
“both will be reciprocated.... for they must, in one form or another, eventually.”
“to take is to be reciprocated as well.”
“a great difference between giving and taking, is that while i give, i am receiving fundamental joy in being ~ knowing i am facilitating the being of another ~ which in turn shall sustain me.”
“in taking, the immediate gratification must come from the spoils of the act its self, thereby simply sustaining a perceived need to take. pushing us beyond our recognition of enough....”
“facilitating.... creating greed.”
“greed is abuse of abundance. perpetually depreciative, and in a certain sense, counter to the nature of existence.... the consequences of which steadily accumulate, until by whatever means....”
“the balance.... is made to shift.”
“as we feel stability slip through our hands we grab and hold ever tighter to our beliefs, but when there is no food, no water, only terrible suffering abounding ~ only the knowledge of faith and its source will provide us the motivation to learn the means of manifesting hope. we cannot eat faith, but without faith.... we would not be hungry. we would not be here.”
“if i exchanged a surplus of knowledge in assisting people to rediscover their spiritual selves and became greedy, i could easily abuse my position of influence. i could place an inflated value upon that knowledge, and rather than receive an equal exchange, could hold you or some other hostage to their need.”
“further, i could alter or distort my insight ~ encouraging the recognition of just enough faith within you, as you have suggested, to keep you dependent upon my source of supply, rather than finding and nurturing your own source. i would be able then, to maintain control over that source of intuition ~ which is within you.”
“although many sell belief, no one can sell faith ~ for, it is truly inherent to begin with.”
“because i, perhaps, haven’t lost as much of my self as some, i may simply be able to show others some sense of what they may have forgotten. share with them a map to the pathways of their selves.”
“the knowledge to sustain one’s self is deeply within one’s self....”
“the essentials of which should be carefully tended and exchanged from one generation to the next.”
“in a society, we simply choose to redistribute that knowledge, that skill ~ facilitating an interdependence among our members.”
“in a technologically evolving society we can conveniently forget how to sew or forget how to harvest or forget how to heal our selves.”
“eventually the knowledge seems lost to us and we must relearn, sometimes through very inconvenient means, what we have forgotten.... in order to transcend our dependence.”
“this is what greed can do.”
“it can decimate individual initiative and awareness by dissolving direct dependency.”
“we’re all in potential danger of our instincts of laziness and fear, but to ignore that influence, to craft social systems without truthfully and completely acknowledging our predisposed instincts, is to jeopardize our species and all others to untold devastation.”
“sadly, a perceived ‘quality’ of life must often be negated to the extent that the risk of change becomes less of a threat than a perceptively depreciated existence within that current system.”
“many wanderers must see their children dying before they will risk the lives of their children to initiate the magnitude of changes necessary to halt the powerful systems which manifest such devastation.”
“in a sense, they must feel they’ve nothing left to defend.”
“nothing left to lose.”
“what have we all lost by then, opportunist?”
opportunist was only willing, however, to recognize those opportunities which seemed to supply immediate, tangible and singularly personal value. he offered, “if you sold your knowledge ~ you are dependent upon supply and demand, your self, fool!”
“if these wanderers knew of their faith and were able to nurture it within ~ then you would have to discover some other means of trade.” opportunist laughed loudly. “what an idiot, you are! good thing you didn’t have to win that light with intelligence.”
“happily, i would rejoice in that, opportunist.”
“if faith were so accessible ~ and i needn’t spend so much of my existence seeking and sustaining my own. if at every turn my faith were affirmed by others, as equally as theirs were affirmable by me ~ then i would revel in such abundance, as would all.... and happily occupy my existence with some other endeavor conducive to mutual and immediate sustainability. happily, opportunist....”
“happily.”
“bah....” said opportunist. “i see you need more time in this hole to more fully understand the value of exchange, seeker; so, i’m going to give you a little more opportunity for self reflection.” and opportunist ~ confusing his greed with happiness, his acquisition with achievement ~ departed with a shout over his shoulder, “you’re the one in a hole, seeker. don’t try to tell me about happiness.”
a while later, seeker felt great hunger and was tempted to formulate a means of escape, but risk soon returned and presented him with two gifts.
one was an edible root. the other was an ornament: three small sticks fashioned in an array, similar to the design seeker had arranged in the bottom of the hole. the sticks were bound at the center with twine and strung on a thong.
risk passed both gifts to seeker.
placing the thong around his neck and gratefully consuming half the root, seeker thanked his companion, from whom a soft and steady glow emitted and remained.
at risk’s request, seeker continued to teach his companion of art and explain the difference between discovering one’s sense of worth and an opportunist dictating it.
seeker explained how ignorance, fear and dependency equaled potential oppression ~ and encouraged risk to nurture the faith and courage necessary to transcend potential bondage.
seeker also realized that, because of the resilience of their faith, because they were able to receive art without expectation or a desire to thrust judgment upon it or upon them selves ~ children were often able to create and appreciate creation more than their elders.
risk observed opportunist from afar and learned of the locking mechanism which served to imprison seeker. although risk freed seeker, he remained in the hole as if imprisoned to observe what would come of this new knowledge that risk had begun to share with other risks and ruins.
though there was initial resistance born of fear among many, some eventually explored the possibilities of art in secrecy and began creatively crafting practical devices which lead eventually to elaborate, seemingly non-practical and even public displays of self expression.
eventually, as self recognition facilitated their transcendence, the wanderers captured opportunist and held him captive in the hole seeker had once inhabited but from which he was now released.
in opportunist’s temple, seeker found the stick he had once carried, and decorating it with symbols representing freedom, expression and transcendence, presented the stick to risk at the great ‘freedom festival’ held to commemorate the wanderers’ journey into their light.
after the celebration, risk lead a small group of other risks and ruins out into the near and surrounding darkness.
they later returned bringing forth seed and other of the path’s inhabitants, as well as stories of their travels.
collectively, the band began to rejuvenate the land, extending their creative influence to the arranging and tending of gardens, the building of ponds and waterfalls within renewed streams.... the construction of terraces with bushes, trees and water canals.
with careful, gentle, compassionate hands, these wanderers tended the natural diversity of the path, as well as the natural diversity among them selves....
they re-established and protected vast wild areas to accommodate other of the path’s ‘less cultivated’ and wild inhabitants: bird people, fish people, insect people, reptile people and mammal people.... including human people, who comprised their own societies and facilitated a different kind of trade with their environment, maintaining a different system of sustainability.
all expressed great pride in replenishing and nurturing the sources of their sustenance, and reveled as nature began reclaiming what they had taken such a short time to destroy..
their society disbursed into relatively small, relatively distant, relatively self sufficient bands and developed sustainable, equitable trade among all members and other societies.
from this, they were able to receive once again the natural bounty of the path, and grew comfortable in their balance, their awareness and closer relationship with all.
and
seeker saw
rediscovering their sense of place and purpose, wanderers renamed their children and them selves.
opportunist’s vast temple was converted to a place of creative performance and display. and each inhabitant learned to express creativity through their chosen occupation. gardeners and gatherers, hunters and bakers, basket and blanket makers, tenders and teachers, story tellers, potters, painters, builders and weavers.... all revived their light within.... and lent it to brighten the lights of others.
the once stark and poisoned land, inhabited by vast lightless hoards, had become a haven of light for the exploration of self expression and sustainability.
other wanderers of the path ventured from afar to partake in the nurturing environment and exchange their worth with the bands and the lands they occupied.
clinging with ever greater tenacity to his belief in supply and demand, opportunist had begrudgingly begun to realize his need for and appreciation of risks. swearing he had at last learned the lessons of exchange so that he might partake as an equal participant of the new enterprise, opportunist incessantly threatened, begged and connived until gaining finally his release.
some time would have to pass before opportunist learned of inherent value, and seeker realized that all of the path was in jeopardy of the sometimes shortsighted and greedy motivations of the many opportunists like him.
seeker, walking away into darkness and holding thoughtfully the ornament presented to him by risk, realized....
he
had known the greatest love
in
the nurturing and restoring of faith the unconditional love of a child.
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Confrontation and Defense ~
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