Previously
At the start of their third day, seeking the treasure, our three friends and Electra have woken up to a glorious morning, after the events and storm of the night before.
Nunco, the perpetual storyteller has been telling them the tale of Adam, a man he knew well, who had struggled with a lack of clear direction in his life. Apparently highly successful, Adam had laboured under the illusion that being a giver would give him peace and happiness, but this dream had remained elusive.
Nunco, now continues Adam's story in relation to how he got closer to living his dream.
The story Continued
“You see” continued Nunco, “until that point Adam had not even figured out what it was that he was doing wrong. A bit like Pre mentioned earlier, he had felt that things were unfair, since he was a perpetual giver.
“Much as, we would all love to live in a utopian world, we also must understand that not everyone has reached the level of consciousness, whereby they have the ability to detach themselves from the apparent intent of what another person may be saying or doing to them.
“When you get mugged on the street, your belongings stolen and at least a bruised ego, if not a bruised body, you must ask yourself if the mugger mugged you because of who you were, or just because of where you were!
“Does this mean that you need to detach your own personal feelings from what happens and view the event as an impartial observer?” asked Electra.
“Exactly, that is exactly right; and that is precisely what Adam did” agreed Nunco, continuing with the story. “In fact it was one of Adam's best friends who got mugged, and he was with Adam at the time it happened.
“They had been down near the docklands and Adam had stopped to pop into this shop to buy some cigarettes. His friend had continued on walking, because he had seen this boat moored that he wanted to take a closer look at.
“As Adam came out of the shop, he looked across the street to the waters edge, just in time to see his friend lying on the ground and these two thugs running off down by the river.
“Adam rushed over to his friend, who got up to his feet, apparently unhurt physically. He then launched the most vitriolic torrent of abuse, the gist of which was to say; how unlucky he was and how it was as though people seemed to sense his vulnerability.
“It was in that instant that Adam got this flash of insight. He understood with certainty that the two muggers had been complete opportunists and if the roles had been reversed, it would have been himself now in the indignant state that his friend was currently in.
“Acting completely out of character, Adam slapped his friend had across the face and asked him if he really thought he was that damn special. Shocked, dazed and bordering on outrage his friend wanted to know what the heck Adam was talking about.
“Continuing on Adam asked his friend if he really believed that those two vagabonds had the foresight to think about him, who he was or were they thinking about what they wanted, and he just happened to be the means to the end.”
“So” said Electra slowly, furrowing her brow in deep concentration “because he was not actually involved in the situation, Adam was able to separate himself from the incident. So are you suggesting we need to remove our personal feelings from situations in order to be able to choose how to react?”
“So Electra, can you think of a situation where doing that might have helped you recently?” asked Nunco.
“Ok, I am separating myself personally from that remark – wow, that feels weird – I was already to get up and be all defensive, but that simple act of deciding not to react personally has already changed my reaction.
“yes, to answer your question; yesterday my caustic remark in relation to the vixen, when you Nunco, said ‘him'! I allowed my horror at what was happening combined with your innocent remark, to spark off all sort of emotions in relation to me being the only woman in the group – oh my God, this is pure crap what we do to our selves, isn't it?
“WOW! Pretty fiery person aren't you?” asked Prostremo.
“I am not rising to that remark, my dear Pro” purred Electra, “you see I have separated myself from your childish remark and come to the realisation that it takes a pretty immature guy to try that sort of stunt when we are actually being serious.”
“That was below the belt now Electra” an indignant Prostremo countered “I was only joking, you don't have to bite my head off, ok!”
“So you haven't quite got it yet, have you Pro?” replied Electra.
“Of course I get it, you…” Prostremo stopped mid sentence, slow realisation spreading across his handsome features. “No I didn't get it, did I?”
“But you do now, and that is all that matters” said Electra “We're all human you know, even me!”
“So this is how Adam learnt how to handle criticism” said Preteritus, “But how did he learn to start loving himself to get over his other limiting belief? How did he get access to the other clue that helped him unlock this mystical door inside himself?”
“That's partly it Pre, It was on another occasion that he was with the same friend who got mugged that this insight came to him” said Nunco.
“Adam's friend had just gone through some pretty rough times and was feeling rather sorry for him self” Continued Nunco “he had basically been advised by someone that he should undertake this rather dodgy investment and he had put rather more money than he could afford into it.
“Now, the friend had really tried to persuade Adam to go in with him, but Adam was the cautious type and wouldn't do it. In fact Adam at the time felt that he was letting his friend down by not going in with him.”
“I bet he was glad that he didn't do it” said Preteritus.
“He was” said Nunco, “but not for the reason that you think! You see, when Adam was trying to console his friend over his loss, his friend told him that the only good thing about the whole fiasco was that Adam had not listened and lost his money as well.
“At that point the two of them suddenly stopped and looked at each other and burst out laughing.”
“I don't see what there was to laugh about” said Preteritus, “Didn't Adam's friend lose nearly all his money?”
“Absolutely true, he did indeed lose a lot of money, in fact it was more than he actually had, because he had actually borrowed money to put into the so called investment” said Nunco “So not only had he not made any money, he had lost all of his savings and he was in debt now and had to pay back the additional money he had borrowed.
“But yes he was laughing, because at that moment both he and Adam had realised that by Adam looking after his own best interests and not trying to save his friend. Not only had he saved a pack of money, he had actually saved a friendship.
“I mean how would his friend have felt if in addition to losing all his money, he had also bankrupted Adam?
“For the first time Adam realised that by looking after number one, you will actually garner far more respect from those that truly matter to you. Now don't get me wrong here, I don't mean become a self serving, selfish son of a bitch.”
“Just stop, take stock and think before you act!” said Electra “It is really amazing how little respect people actually treat themselves with. I suppose in addition to charity beginning at home, so should respect and actions which lead to heightened self esteem, will leave you in a much stronger position to help others – I mean if that's the sort of thing that rocks your boat!
“Normally we only learn from doing” added Nunco, “and that is precisely what happened to Adam, all those years of searching for the answer and interestingly like his friend, he was just looking in the wrong place!”
“So did you know who Adam's friend was?” asked Preteritus.
“I did indeed” replied Nunco “I knew him extremely well, in fact …”
…To be continued.
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