Story Bazaar

The Road...

I'm not really a brave man; but, something had to be done...

Our System has three inhabited planets and six inhabited moons---seventy billion of us; but, things had gone down so far, so fast, that folks thought they could never go back up.

You see, Corporate Entities had taken over the rule of the continents of the planets and the plains of the moons.

There had been many massive environmental disasters as well as disasters in overcrowded space lanes---monstrous disasters. There was little the average person could count on---economically; socially; even, psychologically.

But, all this wasn't just a series of chance happenings---there were cold-hearted reasons...

~~~

Hardly anything is ever all bad, because bad is so often good dressed in strange clothes.

While the old "normal" Leaders were doing things that caused significant tearing down (economic, social, environmental), ordinary folk were quietly building things up again.

That is, until the last ten cycles before the Great Mourning---cycles that saw the new Corporate Leaders trying to play God...

Most people had lost their integrity (actually, had it stolen by being psychologically broken)---they bought in, completely, to the Corporate ways of life...

Just when things became so bad that there was talk of it every day in nearly every space and haunt, there began a massive rumor about a new Prophet... Mavasun was His name.

I was told that Mavasun recast the concept of religion as "the impelling force for the development of consciousness", spawning cycles of growth that always left us with a bit more higher awareness---rather like the growth of any of us from Infant to Child to Youth; with, apparently, the stage of Maturity being what we were beginning to strive toward...

So, the normal tearing down/building up cycle was transforming itself---tearing down was to be massively total, while building up was within the power of any individual with a hint of spiritual yearning.

I met one of Mavasun's followers and agreed to help with a "Community Building" program---shaping new, self-sufficient communities that could tend to their own spiritual and material well-being.

I remember in our conversation, in that dark little building on the edge of the city, how that Mavasunian was so gentle in speech, when the things they were saying dealt with world-altering actions... I especially remember them saying: "It's as simple as walking up a Road and meeting Friends all along the way."---it took me awhile to understand that...

Luckily, I didn't have to become a full member of Mavasun's religion---didn't think I could follow all the Laws; yet, it was fascinating how His followers were still so sympathetic towards me.

~~~

Please understand that my writing of this account has various "inconsistencies" in the time-line.

The basic time flow is correct; but, some things seem to be "overlapping"---past lapping against present and present lapping at future...

It's because my life is changing as swiftly as the old Order is breaking down---as swiftly as our "toddler" Society seemed "overnight" to become "all-grown-up" and demanded that Life bend to its Will. All we got for that swift growth was the Corporate overlords...

I just hope the plans being made and the huge efforts being expended in the Community Building that Mavasun envisioned aren't infected by the Corporate Leaders' diseases.