“The dream train advances across the night sky, faithfully sending wayward dreamers back toward their stated intentions. The train’s conductor knows this journey well, for while many choose to dream, few choose to stay the course. When morning comes he’ll likely see his passengers go astray all over again. This, he knows. He’s seen it all before, as has the moon, whose momentary distraction will be just that. His thoughts are centered on a particular coyote, one he nicknamed “The Night Wanderer.” To the Moon, The Night Wanderer seems very different tonight. At last, he seems “Fulltented” – But I’m getting ahead of myself.
For many moons now The Night Wanderer has trekked through the Rockies. His only intended destination being wisdom, his only fear being coming up short of that destination. He chooses to wander alone and at night for the same reasons you and I might; namely, that the niggling naggings and platitudinous protestations so common in crowds and cities these days only made him more of a stranger to himself, making his destination ever more elusive. Even riding along on The Dream Train, with it’s optimistic vibe and hopeful chatter, proved to be too distracting for him. So, off went, a lone coyote on a lonely journey.
A mental hike is much like a physical one, in that having an efficient stride is essential. It was for this reason that he first began to ‘Pare Down’ his vocabulary by turning two, or even three, words into one. At first, the combinations were simple and obvious: Back and Forth became “Barth”; Climb and Descend became “Clescend”; Over and Over Again became simply “O’gain.” He both liked and disliked the effect this ‘Paring Down’ had, for while he enjoyed the open space he now had in his mind, he also noticed there was something missing. Something big.
He continued paring down words. Change and Opportunity became “Chapportunity”; Time, Effect, and Energy became “Tifforgy”; Peace, Calm, and Tranquility became “Pelmquility”; Kindness and Sincerity became “Kincerity”; Community and Home became “Comme”; and Contentment and Fullfillment became the word I used a variation of earlier, “Fulltentment.”
With these new tools, he pursued wisdom with increasing vigor. He spoke his thoughts aloud and with conviction as he hiked mile after mile through the darkness, his only audience the Moon, until one night when he finally reached his destination. He was leaving a town he’d spent a few of the best days of his life in, but as he ascended up, he stopped, looked back, and realized he was just too wise now to simply be on his way.
He knew he would never stop wandering completely, for after all, his travels had led him to himself, but neither would he ever truly leave that little town in the canyon, for it had filled the empty place inside him. At last, he’d arrived at his final destination: Wisdom. For those of us who’ve also traveled this trek and known this feeling, I’ll use the Night Wanderer’s words to say this:
May barth we go, clescending O’gain, to the comme we’ve found, wasting no chapportunity and expending whatever tifforgy required, to drink in the pelmquility and kincerity of the place that finds and fills what’s been missing inside us; a place The Night Wanderer predictably named, “TELLURADO.”
