The Seventh Direction

PART THREE: Stalking Violet. Episode 60

 ["D/A" narrates —A.A.]

(So, yeah, I'd forgotten where I was, all right, but I backtracked, soon remembered, zipped forward, slammed on the brakes, and let go the dream. For now.) 

"No, now that I've weaseled some time to think about it, Jay, I think I can't give you an example of a peaceful adventure, but I'm still working on it. But I think you never really expected an example. I think you were inspiring or conspiring to stretch me out. My mind, that is. Differently maybe. And it worked. And I thank you. I really mean it. Thank you, for you have stretched me in a wondrous and new way. You see, Master J', the two ends of the One Energy—if you'll bear with me—have always appeared in my mind positive and negative, which ends they are . . . at level 40. But peace and adventure to me are both ends positive and both highly desired; and so, thanks again, for my burnout dissolved the instant you asked for an example, and my mind's expanding still, and I have been smiling ever since."

"You, my dear, are a quick study. So is Wyllen. That's why your mission. What I wonder, though, is how you 'weaseled' without my knowing? You and your tangents, and me and mine. You put one by me, and that's fine by me. But tell me more about your dream, and tell me about your relationship that gave up the us-factor, and if you have anymore about peaceful-adventure, tell me that first."

"There was a bit more," I said. "But it's gone now. Crap. And so is the dream, again.

"They'll return. The us-factor, then. And, when you remember, the dream."

I dawdled.

"C'mon," he said, "let humor go for awhile."

"Alright. The us-factor, then." I thought about it for a moment, let go, and said:

"Well, most any relationship tells me that I can't really know a person, Jay. I find it typical, however, just how open we are when we first meet someone, especially a special someone, but how quickly we form impressions and what soon amounts to a personal but inevitably jaded perception of that special someone, and then the trouble begins. I realized this for myself after much trouble. Realized he—doesn't really matter who—wasn't really the person my perception had created, nor was I his. What I mean is, I wasn't his perception-person either . . . you know? So after awhile, and a few or more baby-steps forward with my personal-growth, I decided I'd just as soon not know him at all, and took a giant step back and began to honor him and his perception both. For me, Jay, it was like seeing a person with an aura around him—an aura containing everything personal and belonging to him, that looks the way it looks because that's the way HE is wired—and honoring the whole shebang. Or at least trying to."

"Thank you," he said. He reached into to his imaginary inside robe-pocket, pulled out an imaginary pencil and notepad and crossed one off: "One more lesson off the list. The dream?"

"Can't remember. Hint?"

"Mario."

"Ahhh, yes. Mario, computers, adventure, peace, monsters, and being in two places at once. Or trying to—"

"The boogeyman, chasing you—"

"Right. So there I am, running faster than Mario could ever imagine, through the jungle. And running-me knows I can escape the monster if I can get to the river, 'cause the beast can't swim. But I'm lost in the thick of it, and to find my way I have to revert to screen-watching-me where I can see the bigger picture and the river's location. I remember the jungle's really deep, Jay, right there in my face—ducking branches, dodging rocks and rotting stumps, jumping over fallen trees, snakes, a wild boar once; and every time—" I stopped, stared at Master J' and remembered what it was REALLY like. Geez, Louise, I couldn't look back at the monster for fear of tripping, and the pace kept quickening and "—well, Jay, each time I referred back to Me Dude at the screen for direction—"