Hanu TFAMM: Everybody Look what’s goin down

[Ben]

Can you be the calm in a storm?
We don’t gotta let the fire run wild, man.

It’s good ta let out what’s inside ya, but how can you be calm, when everybody ‘round ya ain’t?

How about this.. let things be, watch, learn, and walk your way alongside the storms of folks desires, occasionally being blown in new directions by them, but still ending up where ya mean ta be..

…

So I’m deep in the lands of the De Jardin. Deep enough to find folks like me, beastfolk, in chains, enslaved.

Sure, man, it makes me mad, and at the same time, Saddened, and afraid.

Afraid of so many things, duden, including what I might let myself do with the anger I feel down inside.

So, man, I can understand why other folks do the things they do..

I saw a group I know, freedom fighters called “the Pack”, including members I knew, like Brutus and Thecus, doing raids on slave pens, and then..

After they freed the slaves,.. they killed the slavers, and Thecus, in a fit of rage at the mistreatment of her kind, set her dragon on the nearby town.

Yeah.. She’s got a pet dragon.. long story duden, for a different time..

Maybe no one was killed, right? Or, at least, those that paid the price earned their fate for supporting slavery?

That seem right to you, man?

I’m trying ta see things from a higher perspective, duden..

I mean literally..

I’m sittin on my rug, lookin down on the ruins of a town that’s been burnt to ashes. It reminds me of places I’ve been. The remnants of other battles or of misfortune..

Oh yeah.. I should probly clarify duden.. When I get REALLY loose, my rug gets me high, man.. Ya dig?

I mean, I’m like.. flyin, man, and I’m lookin down.

But I guess it’s best to get down to earth, and see what’s goin down, instead a lookin down ta see what’s up.

So I found another slavers pen, and nearby village. I got there before the Pack.

It’s as good a place to start as any.

I believe, dudes, that as scared as we are of change and all the stuff it throws (it can really be a sh## storm, man) we still want to change for the better, duden.. Even the most hollowed out of hearts wants to create a home.

There’s these guys I saw on the boob tube once. (Poet, don’t say it!) Ya know what I mean by boob tube right? Nevermind, man..

Anyway.. there’s these guys.. one was named Bob.. I think the other was Fred.. can’t remember real well. It was a long time ago.. or ahead.. whatever, man.

Their voice was soothin, and they said stuff that was right, y’know?

Like.. “Look for the helpers”..

And tellin ya “there are no failures, just happy accidents”.

But my favorite was like “ there are three ways to success, and all three are to be kind”

They were good peeps. Even if they WAS human..

So I walked among the villagers nearby.

Their first reaction, man, it wasn’t good, but I took a swig from my gourd for some liquid courage, and I started speakin.

When I speak, turns out I gotta good voice, I guess.

People knew I meant no harm. When I told em to look inside their hearts, well, they listened. When I told them to be kind, first to themselves, then to others,.. they did…

We walked up, the whole village, to the gates of the slave pens. I and the village, we spoke to the slavers. All but one of them laid down their arms and went to free the slaves.

Yeah, there was one who had too much Ying fierceness in ‘im ta change, but man.. I got other skills too ya dig? I relieved him of his sword and returned his swing with a hard noggin knockin that sent him to a pleasant dirt nap!

Maybe he’s dreamin of ways to deal with all the stuff that weighs his mind down, man..

I mean, he did call me a poo head!
Cept he didn’t say poo..

…

By the time the pack got there, the slaves were freed, and the Pack was perfectly timed to get them to shelter.

I hear the folks I’ve known done went and named their town Meadowmere..

It’s whispered of as sanctuary.

Couldn’t be prouder, dudes. Not that I did much ta foster that, but, I like ta think.. maybe.. I helped plant a seed.

Anyways, I spoke to the Pack. I suggested, maybe, try an open hand BEFORE a closed fist. I showed ‘em how, in times of need, with a blessing of mine, they could turn something around, so when someone throws at ya somethin vile, you can return it ta sender..

Theres a saying from my old temple:
Avoid, rather than check. Check, rather than hurt. Hurt, rather than maim. Maim, rather than kill. For all life is precious, nor can any be replaced.

To me, that’s a life lesson on violence.

More than: don’t start fights, but finish ‘em, I believe in: don’t be aggressive, but ya can return a “gift” of violence as is.. and then stop.

Change is a constant, and that means the possibility that folks can change too.

Even the a-holes..

So everbody look, and see whats goin down.

Where possible, be excellent to each other.

Strive to be kind..

I think maybe, one way or another, its time to try to get back to my friends at Meadowmere. Share a spirit of support. See if maybe, I can lend a voice in the background that lifts their song.

We’re going through changes, man.

Change is hard, sometimes, but its natural.

Like somebody wise said..
“Be kind. Especially when you don’t know what’s going on. “

…

Change turns us to face what we fear
In all this,
Ignorance seems bliss

Yet, what we push away from
Or hold back
Grows stronger than our will

What we grasp tightly
And seek to control
Shows us the limits of our strength
As it feeds off our attempt to contain it

Allow love
Allow compassion
And learn to live among our fears

Till we find these monsters
That we hide in our dark recesses
Become our comfort and salve
When darkness grows

When we allow them to be
Rather than call them enemy
They become we

And we find change
Is less to fear
Or against which, defend
It is a wave
That may carry home a friend

-signed Sheng Wu, on a piece of paper, floating down from the skies..

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