Thursday, December 14, 2006

a history

Before the sun had risen yesterday or the day before, Jesus of Nazareth spent forty days fasting in the desert after his baptism. Shortly after beginning, the Devil appeared to Jesus and spent efforts tempting him to prove his heavenly influence.  That Jesus did not give in to these temptations is well known.
 
It is not as well known what happened only three days in to Jesus' journey.
 
But this is not the beginning of this story.
 
Prior to his death in 9 B.C.Decimus Claudius Drusus, otherwise known as Nero and an eventual consul to the Roman Empire, met what he believed to be a hermit traveling through the Alps.  It is believed that the day was cloudy and the supposed hermit asked Nero the direction west. 
 
Nero, surprised to see someone else in such a desolate place, asked what would bring someone to such circumstance.  The man responded that he was walking around the world to spread his message. Nero thought to himself the message must be important and vowed , without hearing the message, that he too would spread the message in his travels.  The supposed hermit told Nero that the importance lies not in how many know the message, but in the even seldom use of the wisdom.
 
While is is not known if they had coffee or tea, Nero and this man spoke for seven days, mostly about what would become known commonly as "the butterfly effect" and what direction was in fact west.  Before parting the man told Nero his message. 
 
Nero would only pass this information on to one other person by the end of his life. The head of janitorial services in his favorite bath house. That man, as well, enjoyed a pleasant life and is said to have told no one the message.
 
Some scholars argue that the message in question never existed and what they were in fact so occupied with what was merely the "butterfly effect."  So much so that people deny any other message and have begun to spread the "butterfly" theory to the world.  Most notably Ray Bradbury's fiction and a recent Hollywood portrayal.  These people have been misguided, the supposed hermit was illustrating a point. 
 
By the time Jesus of Nazareth was famously fasting in the desert the hermit had passed on and had only traveled seventy miles on his course around the world.  It is believed he was an enthusiastic speaker and would stop for days on the basis of enjoying company. 
 
He did enlist a young man prior to passing. The young man idealistically followed the hermit's abandoned path, but this younger man also had trouble with direction.  This caused him to be lost in the desert for some time, eventually passing Jesus on his exit.
 
The young man told Jesus he was going the wrong way, that the only thing where he was headed was the Devil.  And, while Jesus didn't take this literally, the young man was correct. Jesus told the young man that he didn't have a choice, that it was his path. 
 
The young man told Jesus that he didn't have time to argue with him about right and wrong, but again warned the Devil was out there and that Jesus would surely run into him. 
 
Normally the young man would have loved to argue, as he was very impressive in debate.   His most recent conquering came while arguing the amount of grains of sand in the desert with the Devil.  The topic lasted about two weeks, and while the younger man was most assuredly wrong in the number, the Devil eventually agreed with him.  The young man left after asking the Devil the direction and by the time he met Jesus he was very unimpressed with what the desert had to offer, thus would not stay to argue with Jesus. 
 
He did give Jesus a message however, to aid him in his travels.  Jesus himself did not relate the message to anyone else, possibly in an attempt not to obscure his own message, but did begin referring to himself with an emphasis on 'Son".
 
The message was passed on throughout the world and ages.  It did not make it to the British Isles until sometime later and perhaps would have delayed the loss of influence had it been related earlier.
 
The hermits and travelers prospered as well.  With one taking over as one passed and some astrological anomaly making most of them have problematic issues with direction.  It is said that one did not have this issue, but had a similar one in relation to the hour or date.
 
The influence of the message spread with each traveler and prospered to the others it was given.  Notable receivers include Sinatra in relation to claims of organized crime ties and D.B. Cooper's one time exploit in Portland.
 
The message gained worldwide notice when it was first publicly stated explicitly on television in 1956.  Bob Stewart was given the message by a street vendor in NYC, the last known whereabouts of the travelers spreading the message.
 
While not stating the exact purpose of the game show, the message was in constant view, used-recycled-used and continues until this day.
 
The End.

4 comments:

carson said...

Wow, bored?

kcmasterpiece said...

I'm confused. I'll try to read it a few more times and see if that helps.

Alex said...

bored? no wine, no women and the scenery I have seen.

carson said...

And the Sinatra conversation was mine a few years back.