The Storytelling Blog Presents :
“The Neverending Story From the Forest City”

There once was a man from a place which looked like a forest. But it was in fact a big city. Its inhabitants lived in the grass, or up in the trees, or lived under the ground, or some just kept gliding suspended in mid air. Most of them were old, but then again most of them were young too. And some were living, while the others were still happily unborn. Many cultures and ethnicities lived there, many races and species lived in harmony, and it was a model civilized and prosperous society in many ways. It was quite a lively forest city, not a dull moment in a busy day at all, that’s for sure.

Anyway, there was this man we started talking about, and he was from this city. And he lived there most of his life. He went to work every day. He would take a tall bus which everyone called the big drivery-drivey. These buses were like centipedes, and in fact, do not be shocked now, they actually were centipedes, and each of them could take on more than 50 passengers, and they roamed the forest city night and day. People would jump on and off, just as they pleased. Their public transportation system worked like a charm! Mind you, not all centipedes in the forest city were buses, really. Just the very big ones. There were naturally other, smaller centipedes in the forest, such as the baby centipedes, the centipede hatchlings and centipedes’ eggs, or the older centipedes, just like in any other forest. Those others centipedes were just like the usual ones as we know them, so there’s quite no need to talk about those here. … because, really… not all the centipedes could ever possibly be actively involved in the public transportation business anyway… I mean, surely you can understand that if literally all the centipedes from a big forest such as this one were suddenly involved in the public transportation business, it would soon become chaotic! I mean, just try and imagine the hundreds upon hundreds of centipedes freely and wildly roaming the forest, going whichever way they pleased, and still all being actively being involved in the public transportation business! It’s impossible! It would be a wild situation! How would you ever know which drivery-drivey to hop on? Absurd… So, luckily, that scenario will only stay within our imagination… Right? Perfect! So let’s move along with our story.

Oh yes, the man from our story… This man was a very special man and he had a very special job. And he had a very, very nice hat. But we shouldn’t talk about his hat right now. He also had a few other hobbies we should mention, such as climbing tree barks from top to bottom, skinny dipping in the morning dew, kite surfing the evening wind updrafts, and he loved music, oh he loved it so much! His best friend was a dragonfly and his wife mrs. firefly and they often hung out together. On one occasion he was invited to a dinner party in their dandelion house which just bloomed white. All the furniture was blown away by the wind, but that didn’t interrupt the fun they had.

… … we have to be quite careful not to wander off from our story too much, now. Hmmm…. please, just follow the story line now… So! This is a good time to briefly explain the nature of his job and what it consisted of. He was recently promoted and put in charge of a very important community project – the happiness project, as it was widely known. All the citizens of the forest were involved in the happiness project, whether they were or weren’t, since it was a highly respected activity in their society. He and the other participants had a very important task – to always keep aware of the sun and the moon above their heads and stay aware of the earth beneath their many feet. They all agreed that by watching and keeping alert of the two forces of nature, which gave them warmth, light and sleep, and ground to walk on, they would find happiness and that their society would flourish.

So, one day, everyone he met he would smile to, and he asked politely – “Hello dear madam, hope this morning finds you well!”, while he was being aware of the beautiful, big shining sun that shone. Or when it started raining he would say, “My what a lovely hat you have, sir”. And to the little ones he would often say “Hello little girl or boy! You sure have grown, haven’t you! Like a sprouting sprout you are! My and such a pretty and intelligent girl or boy you are!”, always keeping aware of the ground. And everyone would be so pleasantly surprised by his friendly comments. If they by some odd chance weren’t enjoying their day at the moment, most everyone would happily smile after chatting with this man.