Darn...we really need to get those monkeys off our backs! LOL! As much as we promised to keep updating here daily we keep slip sliding away! But today you are indeed in for a special treat as we will have two blog posts! One will cover day 8 and day 9 in terms of the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse. And there will be an entirely separate one talking about a special Trini Christmas treat!:)
THE CHRISTMAS ADVENTURES OF THE PURPLE ELEPHANT AND THE LITTLE MOUSE
ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 8:8 DEC 2010
Now as our story left off on Day 7 we were telling you about the intention of the animals and humans at the Production House to use Satyagraha on the cats who were after the little mouse...
Now the Purple Elephant had pulled down books from the top shelves with his trunk while the little mouse scurried below trying to catch them all. And the owner of the Production House went online pulling down and saving to file relevant documents on Satyagraha. Until some of the books before the animals and humans were as follows :
-The Bhagavad Gita
-The Holy Ramayan
-The Holy Bible: Old and New Testaments
-Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet
-The Upanishads
-The Kalpa Sutras of the Jains
And among some of the websites the owner of the Production House had bookmarked were these:
o http://www.quietspaces.com/satyagraha.html
o http://www.satyagraha.org.za/current/
However the animals and humans refrained from using Wikipedia in their research because they got fed up of seeing the image of its founder Jimmy Wales begging for donations and really no one in the house earned cash except for the owner of the Production House and the guy who worked the UCP desk but then he was paid by the owner. So really only one bread winner and so many mouths to feed and they felt it wrong to just go to the site too you know especially when researching such a topic like satyagraha as it made them feel so guilty somehow…and Jimmy Wales looked even cuter in a begging sort of way than the Winnie the Pooh related bears when begging for his pennies so…they refrained.
Now as the animals explored Satyagraha and how to use it on the cats they realised it was indeed going to be a lot of work and for sure they would need all the animals in the house to pull together...so they first needed to contrive how to enlist the help and support of the twenty odd monkeys of the house! They knew they'd be unruly and perhaps they'd even have to use Satyagraha on the monkeys first to get them to cooperate let alone use it on the cats!
So they called in the monkeys one by one or in pairs if they had coupled monkeys...and asked them if they were willing to cooperate and be part of the Satyagraha on the cats...they explained how the Satyagrahi should behave...and really it all went something like this...as the Purple Elephant and other animals and humans in the room took turns talking to each monkey or pair of monkeys:
"As a satyagrahi monkey/s we will expect you to stand for the truth...infact follow your famous Buddhist monkey friends and say no evil, see no evil and speak no evil! Then monkeys you must commit to the satyagraha such that if you are not happy with the Purple Elephant, the little mouse or any of the animals or humans here whose mission you follow you will bring it to this sangam (confluence/meeting) and it should be honestly and openly addressed here. We must our monkey friends commit to the same cause. We must first be satyagrahi(s) onto ourselves before we try to apply the principles of satyagraha with the cats..." And so the speeches went on and on...till one or two monkeys fell asleep but they quickly pulled themselves out of it and apologised for their nodding off with immediate effect!
And stories aside on this Day 8 of our calendar of stories we recall this famous speech given by the apostle and inventor of Satyagraha himself...Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi aka Gandhi Ji aka the Mahatma or simply the Great One!
ADVENT CALENDAR DAY 9:9 DEC 2010
The speeches and briefing of the monkeys continued for two days such that on Day 9 of the Advent Calendar it was still going on. Then finally the Purple Elephant got up from his desk and said:
"Hey guys it's almost been two days enough of these peanuts I need some fresh grass and air! Besides I think I hear steps of an elephant herd on the move and so I suspect some of my elephant relatives must again be visiting us this year!"
The little mouse looked a bit scared and the owner of the Production House started to pull a bit on her head of hair...because they both recalled what happened last year to the house when the elephants came! OMG!
The Purple Elephant seemed to sense this and gave the little mouse a glaring look and then rushed outside to graze in the cool tropical December fresh air. He always likes it this time of year as it's not cold but not hot...just cool...
Whilst the Purple Elephant was out ....the others in the room quickly convened and whispered to themselves that the plan of using satyagraha on the cats would have to be on a hold for a while. Since if the elephants were coming there would be much work to do...much! As last year the house's foundation started to crack when they neared...never mind they stayed outside the house and grazed as the house is only retrofitted enough to allow for one Purple Elephant and not a herd of elephants! But all the same their stampeding still rocked the house...literally!
So they quickly hatched a plan of how to:
1. Prepare for the arrival of the elephant herd.
2. Tell the Purple Elephant what they were up to without hurting his feelings whilst at the same time not being bad satyagrahi(s) themselves...i.e. they could not violate the rule of 'sat' truth!
Anyway the little mouse said he'd handle the Purple Elephant's feelings...and so it was planned that for the next two days while the elephant herd was on the move and nearing the Production House everyone would help plaster additional building blocks and erect certain strategic props such that the house would not shake on their arrival!
And so it was the ninth day of the Christmas Adventures of the Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse ended...
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment