The Greatest Mistake in Human History

Sitting down before a roaring fire a grandfather asks his granddaughter if she would like to hear the story of the greatest mistake in human history.

Being in the mountains and having no internet the girl said ok.

The grandfather began......

Before we breathed
Like we do today
There were 3 sides
C, B, and A.

Side A only inhaled.
Everything was taken in.

Side B only exhaled.
Everything was let go.

Since the beginning A and B never spoke to each other. That was where C came in. C was nothing. In other words C was simply what both side A and B were doing when they were not
either inhaling or exhaling.
Think of C as a Pause.

One day a couple of A's went to the river to take it in.

They both kneeled down by the side of the river and began taking in water. Like a vacuum these A's were sucking the water so fast and furious that they barely noticed when C showed up.

C was an elder and most every A respected the Pause.

Taking everything in was their nature but what good is taking everything in if you can't Pause to appreciate it.

Anyway, during the A's conversation with C
the other A looked across the river and saw a couple of B's putting all the water the A's had just taken out of the river,
back in.

Before C could do anything, the A's redoubled their effort to take back out
what the B's were putting
back in.

The back and forth was furious,
both B and A
were fixed on out doing the other.

C, understanding the problem,
went back to the main village
got another C,
and both of them rushed off to see if they could get A and B to Pause.

After two days of A's being A's and B's being B's, the C's finally held sway.

Having watched this back and forth take place for ages,
the C's decided to try a new strategy.
Every A and every B were given a C Buddy.
The idea was that maybe
just maybe
both A and B could get along if there was a Pause between them.

After much arguing the A's and the B's agreed to always roll with a C.

The next summer a group of A's with their C buddies went back to the river and started taking everything in. The water was cool and refreshing. At one point their C's tapped them on the shoulder and gestured to rock face 200meters from their position.

High up on the rock face was a group of B's and their C's getting ready to put back the water the A's had just taken in.

When the A's saw this they started to get pissed.

The A's agreed that
if the B's started to put the water
they had just taken out
back in
that it would mean war!

As the B's got ready, so did the A's.
The tension rose to a fever pitch.
It looked like their was going to be conflict.

The A's decided that the B's had crossed the line and they began to tilt their heads to the water.

In that moment, right at the edge of conflict the C's said ever so softly into the ears of the A's,

"wait,
pause,
watch for just one more second
before you react."

The A's,
suspicious of the B's,
stayed ready,
but trusting the Pause
looked up.

In that moment the sun broke free from the clouds. The A's, already looking up, squinted as the light broke into a zillion pieces. This sparkling of the sun was followed by a crash, a roar, and then a soft mist. Taking in these new things the A's were stunned. There was so much to take in.

The water-falling was now in many forms: sound, mist, light!

"So much to take in". All the A's exclaimed in unison.

"I had no idea" one A said

"No shit" said another "I always thought the B's were useless."

When news spread that there were A's and B's working in tandem everyone came to the water.

Following suit an A would take some water out, Pause, then a B would step in, Pause, then A, Pause, B Pause, so on and so forth. Pretty soon everybody was interacting and it started to rain.

When that happened A's and B's realized that if they combined forces they could get or do whatever they wanted.

For days and weeks after, the A's and B's used each other to balance out every aspect of their environment. Everything taken out was balanced by putting back in.


"Can you believe we waited this long to realize this", they said with a laugh

After that A's and B's started living together and pretty soon they were having babies that could both inhale and exhale (take out and put back) by themselves.

"That is how you and I can both, inhale and exhale, little one" the grandfather said.

"But I don't get it. You asked me if I wanted to hear the story of the greatest mistake in human history and you ended the story with basically "happily ever after"....... Not to mention.......what happened to the Pause?

"Exactly. These new balanced breathers where so amazed at they own abilities that all they ever did for the first thousand years or so was marvel at themselves. In doing this the forgot the thing that set it all up in the first place......you nailed it.....

"The Pause" she said

"Yep, the Pause. By the time recorded history came around we were back to thinking in terms of A and B. When A prevailed they wrote history from their perspective and B the same. Both sides mistakenly believing that if there was just more of themselves everything would be better"

The Grandfather smiled.


"See the thing about the Pause is that it's both sides and neither side at the same time. This makes the Pause able to see things from both perspectives. This is very helpful during conflict, but because the Pause was never passed down......well....you know the story.

The granddaughter, staring into the fire said " you think if I remember the Pause I'd experience less conflict.

The grandfather
Paused
and said
"I don't know"

ARMOR DOWN UPDATES

This post was guided by the 93st stanza of the Art of Peace, a book written by Morihei Ueshiba



Armor Down is backing Legislation "H.R. 3516" AKA "The Veterans and Armed Forces’ Health Promotion Act of 2013".

This bill will

• Expand the scope of holistic care education and research for signature wounds such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

• Establish complementary and alternative medicine pilot programs for mental health and pain management treatment for veterans.

• Create a grant pilot program to upgrade Veteran Service Organization facilities, expanding the reach of wellness services directly into economically strained communities.

What we need right now people to show their support for this legislation by sign this petition.


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Presently I'm promoting a new comedy on Fox, called Enlisted. It looks funny.