by Justin Davis

In a town far away from here, tucked up in an isolated valley of a forgotten corner of reality, lived a wizard. He was a real wizard, not a magician, not a master of illusions, but a master of reality and the strings behind it. He understood life and the great subconscious (God, Allah, Whatever) and that everything was, is, or will be connected. He was free from the binds of society: work, marriage, expectations of humanity, because he knew they did not matter. He knew that he was there for a purpose and that purpose did not have anything to do with enslavement of any way, shape, or form. His purpose was to fit into the grand picture. Not to lead by taking control of people, but by example. If people were wise enough to notice the natural flow of the wizard's life and to heed his gentle warnings they too could be free.

The wizard took to supporting the town which grew up slowly but surely around his homestead. He created the connections to farms and suppliers of goods which were impossible to come by otherwise. He taught people how to cook, how to hunt, how to listen to one's body. The people took to the wizard's wisdom en masse and became a very wise people. There was a gentle ebb and flow, like the tides, of knowledge, response, and learning between the wizard and the town folk. They respected him for his caring nature, his constant presence, and his wisdom. He respected them for their humbleness, their devotion, and their strength.

Gradually the townsfolk grew older. Some moved away, some died, some became senile. There came a new generation of town folk, younger, more dynamic, and stronger. They saw the success of the past and wanted to expand upon it. They wanted more food faster, more goods faster, more of everything. They wanted to expand the town and upset the balance the previous generation had worked so hard to achieve. They wanted to sacrifice their freedom for a set of beliefs they came up with to impress each other. They wanted to enslave themselves. The wizard did not support this departure from the wisdom of the past. He did not support these distractions from the responsibility to future generations. But the wizard was not a violent or disrespectful man. He was not one to interfere with one's right to do as one pleases. He did not want to take control of this unwise new generation. He wanted to continue to lead by example and perhaps a few would follow. Perhaps this was part of the natural ebb and flow of the life of the town. But it sure was a large ebb.

The ebb continued and people grew tired of the wizard's presence throughout town. They grew tired of his hand in the suppliers, tired of his help in healing, tired of his support of the old ways. He stood in the way of progress. He would step aside or be pushed! And so one day the wizard was captured and slowly tortured to death, he died a cruel, unusual death. He was missed by the few, the wise. And so the supplies and food stopped coming. The people gradually forgot how to cook, how to hunt, and how to listen to one's body. They lost contact with the very thing that kept them alive, the strings were broken. They never knew what hit them for they were ignorant of the wisdom of the past. Ignorance can be bliss, however temporary. The people of the town died slowly and unusually. The world gradually forgot them. The wizard didn't. He still cared for them deeply and wanted to provide knowledge and love for them.

When he died he didn't leave this world. The earth, trees, and sky absorbed him, and one day he was born again. He continued where he had left off, continuing to grow, change, and lead by example despite the binds of those around him. Many people, upon hearing of the wizards lifetime of happiness, asked him what his secret was. "No secret," he said. "Just listen to the voice of the great subconscious and it repeats the same thing over and over: Once you become free you are eternally so. And so I ask: What are you?"