The Guide

The Guide



         Once there was an old man who gathered his three sons, George, Bruce and Patrick at his house.  The four of them sat at their father's round table.  The old man had a book and a large bag in front of him.  When his three sons were attentive he said;

      "Sons, I am old and will soon be leaving you.  It is time for me to give up all my things and go retreat to find peace at last before the end of my days.  This should be our last good-bye.  I'm going away to a secluded place with this very old book from ages too long gone for anyone to remember, and with it I am determined to learn the great eternal truths and wisdom before I die.  Now, I will leave each of you something valuable."

         "To George, my first-born, I give this house.  You and your new wife can have a fine house here to be happy in and bring up your children when that joy arrives."

         "To Patrick, my youngest son goes the treasure I own; the coin, currency, promises of payments and everything I have for money.  You have no direction yet in life, therefore have my money and travel.  See the world and its various ways.  Then you should find the path for your life and have the means to follow it."

         "To Bruce I give this..."  The old father handed him the bag.  Bruce opened it and stared, perplexed for a long while.  Then he pulled out a stick about as long as his arm.  With the stick a firefly came out and buzzed around.

        "This, Bruce, is a magical stick.  You see, what it is good for is beating your foes over the head."

         "I didn't know I had any foes, father."  replied Bruce.

         "There's a lot you don't know about life and the great world out there.  You are about the learn.  Now, the firefly is very important.  He will tell you whose head to start hitting, when, how hard, how often, and when to stop.  Above all, listen to the firefly.  Take proper care of the firefly.  Feed him only honey from bees which fed upon apricot nectar, and that alone.  Do not neglect to do this, even though it can be trouble at times to find this special honey, and always pay good attention to the firefly.  It will guide you to do what is right by the magical stick."

         Bruce put his strange inheritance back in the bag.  It was time to say their last goodbye to their father.  They all hugged and kissed their father, and they each cried.  They would all miss him very much.  They were not ready to have to give up their father so soon.

         Patrick took his money and ran off to the city where the nights were the brightest on earth.  He went to taverns where he made many, many friends and had a very jolly time.  He and his new friends went to the greatest shows and spectacles in the world.  He learned to play cards, roll dice and spin wheels of fortune in gambling houses.  Patrick was having a whole lot of fun in these and other similar houses, but soon he had spent all the money his father had bequeathed him.  He left town with no horse, worn-out shoes and no safe place to keep himself.  He wandered off into the desert without a penny and without a single friend in the whole, wide world.

         George and his wife moved into his father's house and decorated it with exotic flowers all around and with fine furniture within.  Though the house was not broken down or in need of many improvements, George and his wife worked very hard painting, fixing, re-building and remaking the house from top to bottom.  They spent all their time and much hard work on the house that didn't need much.  George also had to go to work to pay for all the wood and paint and special things they bought for the house.

         Tired and worn-out from all the work, George and his wife started having children to take care of.  The fine house was left to fall into disrepair.  The weeds grew over the yards and mice came in and ate what they had on the inside.  Finally, bad bugs came and started eating away at the house, itself.  Then a small flood came down from the skies and wiped away the whole house.  Angry and tired, George's wife went away with the children to find a easier house to live in.  George was left a wanderer with only an old buggy, a few clothes, few friends and many debts to pay.  He no longer had a wife, and his children didn't know who he was.

         At first, Bruce didn't know what to do with the things father had given him.  He talked to the firefly but it didn't say anything back to him.  He searched and searched, and finally found honey from bees which had taken apricot nectar.  With this he fed the firefly, but he did not see any value in it.  Then Bruce went abroad to a foreign land to see new people and new places.  He wandered into a land of crooks, cheats and robbers.  Two robbers saw Bruce with his bag.  One said to the other;

        "That foreigner has something valuable in that bag.  You run in front and distract him while I come from behind and take the bag.  Then I'll meet you at my hovel and we'll share what is in the bag."

        The other ran in front of Bruce and started to talk to him.  Right then, the firefly popped out of the bag and buzzed furiously around the robber's head, then the fly flew in back of Bruce.  Bruce turned and saw the other robber running threateningly up to him.  The fly buzzed around his head.  Bruce took out the stick.  The fly made a swift bounce upon that robber's head, then flew back over to the other to do the same on his head.  The stick quickly followed up with a swift, single blow upon each of their heads.  Bruce just had to hold the stick while it did the hitting and returning itself to the bag.  The stunned robbers rubbed their sore heads and ran away in fear.

         To the firefly Bruce said, "You do know something about protecting me!  I would never had been able to do that so swiftly or so well on my own.  I'll watch every time you come out of the bag."

         Bruce was able to go anywhere in the land of crooks, cheats and robbers without fear.  Anyone who tried any evil upon him got the swift end of his stick on their heads.  No one of this land got away from Bruce proud and happy for having cheated or robbed him, but all turned and fled in fear, then kept a humble silence after their lumps went away.  Still, the people of this land did not change.  Those who didn't know about the stick had to learn the painful way, and all around Bruce saw others being robbed and cheated all the time.  Never was there a day of peace and safety for the people of this land.  Bruce became weary of the place and began to wonder where to go next.  He found one strange woman who liked to keep spiders.  She had spiders and their webs all throughout the cave she lived in.  The cave and her reputation as a strange woman who had spiders for pets kept her safe in this land of wickedness.

         "Spiders are your friends when you cannot see your way back home.  You are going to need one." said the strange woman.  "I'll give you one.  You'll see they make a most valuable gift."

         "Oh, yeah?" replied Bruce.  "Do you see this stick?  Here, I already have a most valuable gift from my father.  I came to you not because you are known as strange and scary, but because they also say you know the answers to any question.  I have a question:  I want to know if there is a place where it is normal for people to be honest instead of the way they are around here.  I'm tired of seeing all the abuse I see in this land.  I'm sick of having to defend myself all the time.  I want to find a place where cheating, lying and robbing are unknown, or at least, rare.  Is there such a place?"

         "Yes, there is."  she answered, "High up into these rocky eastern crags is a mountain village with little crime.  They really obey the law up there.  The place is not perfect, but you will find in that village what you ask for.  Stay here and watch the sun come up over those rocky crags.  From here, the sun will come up over the mountains where you will find the place.  Now, make your bed here and let me give you a friend of mine."  Bruce laid upon a bed.  The woman came over with a spider on the back of her hand.  He stared but couldn't move.  As he lay paralyzed, she let the spider down upon his chest.  It crawled into his shirt between the buttons.  He felt it dig into him and burrow under his skin, but he couldn't do a thing about it.  Soon he was fast asleep.

  Early the next morning Bruce saw the crag in those mountains where the sun rose.  He travelled on to it with no fear.  He came to a village high in a mountain range with only one rocky road leading up to it.  The way was hard but since Bruce didn't have to worry about bad guys, he would go to see places few others had seen.

         This mountain village was a very different place from any he had known because the people here all spoke the same language, all dressed similarly and all did things together throughout their daily routines.  This was a land of strict rules and laws.  Everybody obeyed these laws without much questioning.  These people welcomed Bruce and told him honestly that he could stay if he worked diligently at learning their ways and obeying all the laws like they do.  Bruce was happy to agree.  He went to work as a common laborer since he was a foreigner and didn't have the skills to do anything else.  He willingly worked with the crew of village men who daily labored on the roads and byways of the village taking out rocks and bumps in the paths to make them smooth.

         One day, alone, after work and prayers and evening meals were done he remembered that he had not fed the firefly for a long, long time.  In a panic he quickly opened the bag, and to his horror he found the firefly wrapped in a spider's web.  A piece of it was being eaten by a hungry spider!  He feared that this meant the stick was now cursed.  Bruce decided to put away his bag with the magical stick and spider in it and become like one of the people of this mountain region.  He lived in an apartment of grey brick, wood and one window; a place like everyone else's.  Now, like everyone, he woke up at the same hour, got cleaned and dressed, and prayed the same morning prayer.  Then he went to the Great Dining Hall and had the same breakfast everyone had during Official Breakfast Hour.  After that, all went on to do their various chores, duties and jobs in the community.  Throughout the day they all prayed and took meals together and shopped, went to school, and played and did everything together at the hour those things were to be done.  All this was set down in laws going way back in ages too long gone for anyone to remember.

         One day the road crew Bruce worked on came to a place where the road split to go around a big rock.  All agreed the rock should be removed so the road could go straight, but some of the men wanted to pull it to the ditch on one side, and some wanted to pull it over to the ditch on the other.  The rock would be easier moved to one side, some said, but it was farther to go that way, others argued.  Bruce joined in to argue about this and he became louder than the others.  Then some of the others shouted back at him.  One of the men walked up and grabbed Bruce's chin, forcing a stare-down.

         "You had better just shut your mouth, foreigner, and let us decide!  We won't take advice from a slow-learning, low-land creature like you!" yelled the man, pushing him towards the ditch.  The man made Bruce stumble backwards and fall into the ditch.  On the ground, by his hand Bruce felt a stick.  He quickly got up.  As the man who had pushed him turned around Bruce angrily hit him on the head.  The man fell, holding his head.  The others grabbed Bruce, tore the stick away from him and tied up his arms.

         "You'll be punished for this!" they told him and led him away.

         Bruce did not share any more meals or prayers with the community, but was thrown into prison right away.  He wanted to weep for what he had done, but instead he thought deeply and quietly about the events that led him here and why he had done what he had done.

         He began to think to himself; "It started with a rock, and which way to push it.  Then we all got haughty, and I became the worst."  Bruce began to pray, "God, I ask you to heal the man I hit.  I pray that you guide this community to give me a punishment for my act that is most just.  Turn their minds to doing to me what is best.  Let me not be punished in their anger and hatred for me, but give me a just punishment so we all may go on wiser.  Also, please give me an omen of what may come."

           While he lay upon the prison bed and stared up at the ceiling for a long while, he watched a big spider in the center of its web up in the corner above him.  He thought of how carefully the spider spun the web, which looked almost invisible, and how patiently the spider waits for a meal to get caught.  Soon, a fly flew into the web and couldn't get away.  The spider went to the fly, wrapped it up and had a piece of it for a meal.

         "Good, spider!" said Bruce, admiringly.  "This either shows me that they will tear me to pieces, or that I will have to feed on flies!"

         That evening he was brought before an assembly of all the community to be judged.  He sat in a small chair while the people called for severe punishments.  The judge came by chariot which became his seat during the procedure to follow.  The judge swiftly waved his hand for silence and the crowd instantly obeyed.  Then the judge ordered Bruce to tell not just the story of the incident, but the whole story of his life and how he came to the village.  Bruce was surprised to have to tell about his life, but he told every bit of it and they all listened.  The story of his life fascinated them because it was so different from the lives they knew in the mountain village of regular routine and strict, ancient laws.  When he got to the part about his father saying his final 'good-bye' to he and his brothers to go on a retreat with an old book to study alone, they all laughed.  When he told about what his father left each of his sons, they laughed so hard that it took the judge a while to regain silence.  He told about the times he used the magical stick and how the firefly helped him, and all about the land of crooks, cheats and robbers, and how the woman with the spiders helped him find his way to them.          Finally, the judge spoke.  To the gathering he said;

         "Many of you here will condemn this man, alone.  In your minds, he is the enemy.  Your thoughts on him are vile, full of hateful images and violence.  While he, too is guilty of violence against one of us, he was mistreated with our insults, violence and rudeness.  The man who provoked him will also have to answer for this.  All the men on the road crew let a rock become an obstacle to fight over.  Not one used any God-given sense.  As for this man, Bruce, who also allowed his temper to grow hot and add to the anger of the moment, who answered violence with violence, I sentence him to one cycle of the moon in prison with some labor which I will spell out." 

         "Bruce," said the judge directly to him, "After your sentence, for your protection, I will order provisions to be given to you for a journey back to your home.  Though I cannot tell you where to go, I must banish you from here.  I strongly suggest you go to your father's home or place of burial and pay respects due to him as a son.  Then find that book of wisdom of ages past and, unlike your father, study it before you grow old.  Such a book should be taken into ones heart from the earliest age and studied for life."

         Bruce was taken back to his prison cell to start his sentence.  He tried to sleep, being as tired as ever, but could not.  The thoughts of being banished, where he would go, how he would find his father and his brothers, and how he would make it in the world so weighed upon him that he could find no peace.  Staring at the ceiling was all he could do.  Then, a spider crawled into view and Bruce smiled.  He watched him spin another web for a while, but soon this soothed his soul and caused him to go into a deep, rejuvenating sleep.

         The man who Bruce hit with the stick on that angry day was also in the prison, sentenced for the same length of time as Bruce and also required to do some labor, but the man kept his distance from Bruce and would do his best to never look at him.  Bruce did work well with the other prisoners and prayed and ate with them, too.  All the prisoners got along with Bruce and liked him well, except that one man.

         On his last day in prison Bruce found the man he had struck with the stick and walked up to him.  The man kept his back to him.

         "I never said to you what I must:  I apologize for what I did to you."  They were both silent for a while.  Then the man turned around and said, "I ought to punch you in the nose!  Because of you I am here!"

         "I think what the judge said about us was right.  Think again on his words and tomorrow you will be free."

         "I'll always be known as one who has been in prison!"  retorted the man, angrily, "All because of you!"

         "I learned something that day."  returned Bruce.  "I learned that just because I once had a special stick, I never had the right to feel like I was better and could hit anyone I was angry with.  With that stick I could defend myself, and even defend others against any man who tried to do evil, but I became arrogant and reached for any weapon in anger instead of staying calm and humble like I should have.  I will spend the rest of my life thinking about that.  I will learn when to strike, when to talk, when to be silent and still, when to walk away, when to be silent and work and when to be silent and obey, even when others are angry.  This is what I learned in your village:  How to stay silent and calm.  The harm and evil some do can be stopped in many ways, but striking someone in anger is more of the same evil."  The man slowly turned his back again to Bruce then started walking away.  Bruce said these final words to him;

         "If you want to be free tomorrow like I will be, accept my apology and don't let our fight bother you to your soul, anymore."  The man stopped and stood for a long while, then turned and gave Bruce an angry stare for a long while.  Bruce looked kindly upon him until the man's face changed to a slight smile.  The man said softly, "OK." and nodded his head and turned away.

         Again he couldn't sleep that night.  He wanted to see the spider come back to his web.  He watched and watched, and finally the spider came in a spun another web.  Then he went to sleep.

         He awoke on the day of his freedom to the knocking at his door by a prison guard with a knapsack full of provisions for a long journey.  He was led him out of the prison and on to freedom.

         Bruce looked at the wide sky.  He turned slowly to see the mountains surrounding him all around the horizon. He took the road out of the village opposite the way he came in, so as to not return to the land of crooks, cheats and robbers.  After many days he was in a rocky, wind-blown desert.  He had run out of provisions and collapsed from exhaustion beside a rock just big enough to provide him shade from the scorching sun.

         "I am truly lost."  he moaned and closed his eyes.  He was unconscious.

         That night Bruce opened his eyes and saw the desert bathed in bright moonlight.  From where he sat he could see a thin silver ribbon glistening in the moonlight.  It was a spider's web and Bruce knew he had to follow it.  He quickly got up to his feet.  Within him was new energy to travel on.  The spider's web shined like a silver thread at night and like a gold thread in the day.  It led him back to his old country.

  In the road just outside his city he found his brothers Patrick and George, lost and wandering.  They all rejoiced to be together again.  Bruce told them to follow him.  After another journey they found the lonely place their father retreated to study the old book.  He was still very much alive and living in a hut.  He was very happy to see them again.  Some of the belongings they remembered were still with the old man.  He did not give everything he owned away.  So the old man and his three sons sat once again around the round table.  He said;

         I want you to know that I'm so happy to see the three of you.  I never expected to see my sons again, and now here we are, together again.  I'm so happy, but I notice that none of you have anything left.  I gave you three practically all I had and now you all returned completely empty-handed.  Not any piece of what I gave the three of you is left."  He turned to his youngest son and asked; "Patrick, what did you learn from this and what are you going to do about it?"

         Patrick replied; "I guess I didn't learn much.  Uh...Oh, yes!  I learned that people are just greedy!  When you have money they are your friends, but money when flies away, so do friends."

         "Uh-huh" said the old man as he nodded and turned towards George.  "What did you learn, George, and what are you going to do about it?"

         George replied; "I learned that a woman can ruin a man!  What is important for a man is to have a good woman.  I'm going to find one.  That will be what I'll do before I do anything!"

         "Uh-huh" went the old man with another nod.  Finally, he asked Bruce:  "What, my son, did you learn and what are you going to do?"

         Bruce said; "I learned that people can be all kinds of ways; cruel, kind, selfish, selfless.  People can be your friend, or your enemy.  I learned it helps to be kind and forgiving, and it helps to have a stick with a firefly to guide the stick towards evildoers.  Spiders do good work and help you when you're lost, but there's still something more we need.  It is something we need before anything else.  Father, did you learn anything important from being here all alone reading the book?"  The old man closed his eyes and hung his head.  He said;

         "Yes, yes, I did learn something important.  Here's what I learned:  Left on our own without any guide and teacher to help us on our way, we either get lost or killed.  Everyone gets lost with nothing but themselves for a guide.  It doesn't matter if you are young or old, rich or poor, or think that you are smart and care to do right and mean well, you, everyone, will go terribly and dangerously wrong in some way and will be lost without a guide that is more than yourself."

         All three nodded and said, "A guide from ages too far gone for anyone to remember!"  The old man continued;

         "As soon as I began to read I learned that I made a big mistake.  My big mistake was to save the book for the end of life and not start on it at the beginning.  The book had been forgotten for a long, long time, but shall be forgotten no more.  Sons, stay with me and let us read and understand it together.  Bring others here, too.  Be here with me when I die and bury me here.  Then go out together with this guide in your hearts and follow the right way of your lives.  Here's the book.  Now we can all start over again."