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#4063 -
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 - Editor: Jerry Katz
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Peculiar Stories
Mora Fields
Trade paperback, 92 pages
$6.95
Ages 6-10 and up
Mora Fields wrote the childrens book Peculiar Stories - http://ostreetpublishing.com - Mora talks on Nonduality Street podcast about what inspired her to write the book and the nondual teachings contained within them. We also meet one of the most memorable characters in nondual spiritual literature, Uncle E, a free spirit in touch with the fundamental vibration of life and which he tries to transmit to his niece. Click here to listen or here... http://nonduality.com/nondualitystreet_2november2010morafields.mp3 (You may have to reload the page to get the complete podcast to play.) Here is an excerpt from Peculiar Stories, by Mora Fields
Intergalactic Beans
Uncle E has this one habit that drives me crazy.
He has a lot of strange habits, like hibernating in his
house for a whole week sometimes, and skipping down the
street (even though he’s actually a grownup), and shaking
Braggs Liquid Aminos sauce on almost everything he
eats. But these are habits I’ve gotten used to and they don’t
bother me.
The one that drives me crazy is this thing about
winking.
He winks at people. At me, and at other people he
knows, and even at strangers on the street. He doesn’t do
it a lot, but he does it at weird times when you wouldn’t
expect someone to wink at you (if you ever would). I don’t
mind when he winks at me, or at people he knows, but
when he winks at total strangers, it sometimes gets him
in trouble.
I asked him one time why he winked at me, and he said
it was sort of a secret signal. “Yeah, right,” I said. “What is
that supposed to mean?”
“You know,” he said.
“Come on, Uncle E, what kind of signal?”
“I know you know. But in case you have temporarily
forgotten, I’ll go ahead and remind you.
“So, what if some alien bean from another planet landed
here? What if it looked just like regular people, so you
couldn’t tell it was actually a bean from outer space? But
once it gets here it goes all over the world and discovers
that there are actually quite a few beans here from its own
planet. There is this kind of radiation stuff all these beans
give off , and whenever they run into one of their own kind
they can feel this radiation stuff , and then they use a secret
signal to show they recognize each other. Like maybe a
hand signal. Or hopping on one foot. Or winking.”
“Right. I’m an alien bean and you’re an alien bean, so
you wink at me?”
“That was just an example,” he said. “What it is, I wink
at people when they remind me about myself.”
“Remind you about what about yourself?”
“Remind me that I am really not who I pretend I am
and that I’m only wearing a costume. You know, an Uncle
E costume. So here we are, thinking we’re grownups,
kids, surfers, rock stars, Chinese, Swedish, smart, dumb,
whatever—when those things aren’t who we are at all. We
just wear those ideas about who we are, like costumes.
Underneath, we’re really all the same. We’re from the same
tribe of beans from the same faraway planet.”
“But I’m a girl, Uncle E. I’m not the same as a BOY!”
“Well of course you are. Your ideas might be different.
The way you’re made is different.… Duh! And the way you
act is diff erent, too, partly because you’ve learned to act
those ways, and partly because you were born with your
own special design. But underneath all that, the real part
of us, that’s the same. The problem is, sometimes we forget
that this is just a costume game and we start thinking the
costumes are real. So, when I see someone who reminds
me I’m not diff erent from them, and that I’m playing a
game, I wink at them to thank them for reminding me.”
Well, this made me feel kind of good, because I figured
Uncle E thought we’re from the same planet. And even
though I didn’t really get what planet we were supposed to
be from, I liked that he thought we were from the same
one. As a matter of fact, I always secretly liked it when
he winked at me since it made me feel like we were in on
something together, whatever it was.
But still, winking at strangers is risky. And Uncle E has
gotten himself in trouble this way.
One person he winked at—a really big, raggedy-looking
guy with a motorcycle helmet—grabbed Uncle E by the
shirt. Apparently he didn’t approve of winking, and he
said, “Hey, buddy, if it wasn’t for your daughter here, I’d
break your nose.” I was kinda glad the guy thought I was
his daughter, even though it did scare me a little. “I’m sure
glad you were here,” was what Uncle E said afterwards.
And then there was the day he winked at Sofia.
We were on our way to the beach, down by the train
tracks, when we passed a lady going the other way. She
was kind of tall and wearing this long dress with a hood
that I found out later is called a “djellaba.” She looked
preoccupied, which means she was busy thinking about
something important and serious instead of looking at the
scenery. Uncle E winked at her, and then she stopped and
said, in a pretty unfriendly voice, if you ask me, “Get a
life.” And she walked off , real huff y. I guess she was in a
bad mood.
Uncle E just shrugged. It looked like she didn’t know
about the beans-from-another-planet thing, so he might
have made a mistake when he winked at her in the fi rst
place. She probably thought he was some kind of dweeb,
which I was wondering about, too. I kind of wished that I
had stayed home to do the homework I was supposed to
be doing anyhow.
But later when we were running around in the ocean
waves up to our knees, and seeing who could get the longest
piece of seaweed, who came walking in our direction but
this same huffy lady, with her djellaba blowing behind her
in the breeze like a queen cape. Only she didn’t look so
huffy any more, she just looked kind of friendly. So what
did she do, she winked right at Uncle E, and then right at
me, too.
Read the rest of the chapter and and order Peculiar Stories at http://ostreetpublishing.com/dialog/peculiar-stories/