CIRCLE OF LIGHT
 
                                ACT - 34
                            26 December 1993
 
                 Copyright (C) 1993 Homer Wilson Smith
       Redistribution rights granted for non commercial purposes.
 
 
     I had a dream last night.
 
     I was on a dark and smelly planet, the skies were black and red
from volcanic fire.
 
     In the middle of the planet was a tall mountain surrounded by dark
and unhospitable plains below.
 
     On the mountain was a small band of people who were throwing rocks
taken from their mountain at the people below.  They had contempt for
the people below and didn't want them to come up on their mountain.
 
     The people below cowered as the rocks came down upon them, and they
hid themselves alone in their holes in the ground where they could not
be hurt.
 
     Then out of the blue a brilliant point of light flashed out amongst
the people below.  It grew strong and steady and people tried to gather
to it to become connected to it.
 
     The light began to elongate and it slowly traced out a solid white
line in the darkness, meandering almost willfully among the people
below.
 
     As it wandered and grew in length, the people who were close to it
became connected immediately, and others, who were farther way,
struggled through great hardship to become connected to the line of
light too.
 
     Those who became connected found that they could talk to each other
effortlessly who were also on the line, and you could see the ebb and
flow of their thoughts and feelings sparkle and flow along the corridor
of white power connecting them.
 
     Soon the line of light became so long it started to bend around the
mountain and take in people on the other side too.  As it circled around
the mountain more and more people became connected to it who had never
even known that each other existed.
 
     The communication between them was as the flow of a mighty river
straining the very nature of the line itself.
 
     During all this time the people on the mountain were still throwing
rocks at the people below, almost oblivious to the white line and its
growth around the mountain.
 
     Only the people connected to the line knew what was happening.
 
     And then the white line finally came full circle, back to where it
had started, and it connected up with itself, completely surrounding the
mountain.
 
     At that moment a quiet hush fell over the line, as everyone knew in
that moment something had changed forever.
 
     Suddenly someone picked up a rock that had been thrown at him, by
the people on the mountain, and he looked at it long and hard.  Then he
looked up at the mountain thoughtfully, and then again at the rock in
his hand, and then HE THREW IT BACK!
 
     Instantly everyone around the mountain knew what had been done, and
they picked up rocks that had been raining on them and they too threw
them back.
 
     The people high up on the mountain were stunned, this had never
happened before.  They dove back into hiding and there was peace on the
mountain, and no more rocks were ever thrown.
 
     Homer
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Homer Wilson Smith           This file may be found at
homer@rahul.net              ftp.rahul.net/pub/homer/act/act34.memo
Posted to usenet newsgroup:  alt.clearing.technology