Meeting a fellow traveler

I got a sense that another traveler was near one night.
I made a guess and headed to the local watering hole,
called The Woggler's Arms. He used the same logic. He
told me his name, Deeter Raumzeit. The time line he was
native to didn't sound familiar. He had been touring
the multiverse since discovering the mechanism, several
decades subjective. Lately Deeter was doing a study of
Saint Eckt. The world we were sitting in, drinking the
local beer, was the twenty-fifth reality he had explored
looking for Eckt's histories. "What makes one individual
prominent in so many threads?" I ask. Deeter thought
for a moment, "That's a central question" He answered.
"What makes one person different from another is largely
consistent among their threads" He continued, "So their
drives will be the same in differing circumstances. He
told me about worlds where Eckt never went near a Poly.
Worlds where he died early. In some Theads He lived to a
ripe old age as head of the church. The most interesting
to me was one scenario where Eckt married the milk maid
and told the Poly to spread its oun message. Deeter said
there was a thread where Eckt's sister ran off with one
of his younger disciples. "Did she practice the cycle of
Temptation?" I ask? Deeter laughed and said, "If she did
it was a series of very short cycles". "I thought Eckt
was happiest as a dairyman" Raumzeit said, "He was
known far and wide for the quality of his product". "And,
he sired ten children, all agnostics" he added, finishing
his beer. Well into the night we exchanged stories and
co-ordinates, threads of interest. I promised to look him
up if our paths crossed. This rarely happened, even the
worlds he and I could exist in were beyond infinite in
number.

A Cycle 0f Temptation

The woman to whom Eckt yielded at last wasn't really trying to
get his attention. She lived with her father and mother on a
modest farm at the base of the mountains called the southern
wall. She was unschooled. All who traveled from the west to
the east journeyed through these mountains. travelers often
rested there on their way to the summer pass higher up.
Eckt came upon the farm late one afternoon in the fall. A
pleasant day. He saw the maid herding cows from the fields
and called to her. He ask about lodging and a meal and she
brought him to the house. Her mother took but one silver
coin from Eckt. That purchased for him a hearty meal with
the family and a corner in the barn with a comfortable pallet
of straw. Scripture speaks of a night of fireworks in which
the Earth moved. This was (according to some non-believers)
A meteor shower and Earth quake.

The accounts, all written later, say Eckt left early in the
morning without rendering farewell to the farmer and his
wife. What the nascent saint said to the maid was subject
to a thousand years of conjecture, fiction and (again from
non-believers) ribald anecdotes. He was said to be angry
with himself for having given in to temptation. The
experience did, however, remind him of the concept of
periodic renewal of virtue. He resolved to keep his
attentions focus on the spiritual, on the work of
proselytizing. This he managed to do....for a year.
Twelve months later, almost to the day, he found
himself passing the same farm. That night there were
fireworks (again). If there was an earth quake it was
localized to a corner of the barn. This formed the basis of
a core concept of the evolving faith. A cycle of Temptation,
surrender, renunciation, rededication & Redemption.
The lesson of the "Cycle of Temptation" is that we can
never escape wickedness - but we can repeatedly rise
from our yielding to it.

A Saint Tempted

Eckt as a youth was considered handsome. Many a maid had
taken the second glance to dwell on his features. After his
vision and subsequent calling this admiration only grew. In
that perverse but familiar way, the forbidden became all the
more attractive. For Eckt had forsaken all the pleasures
offered by the world to a young man. The carnal road was a
way diverted should he succumb. All came to know this and
there developed a trend, an insidious practice among the
maids of the land. On hearing of Eckt's approach maidens
young (and some not so young) would disrobe, singly or in
groups, to catch his eye. This wickedness went further.
Devoted only to spreading the news of his vision the prophet
depended for his nightly lodging upon the kindness of
Innkeeper and farmer. A simple meal of bread and cheese
and bed of straw was all he asked. These were given. But
in these beds of straw and linen Eckt encountered naked
sirens intention being the means of his fall from grace. In
pairs, quartets, singly or as many as a dozen in the proffered
beds, in the straw, under the beds, in lascivious pose
straining to maximize every wicked wile they lay in wait.
But Eckt resisted. Year after year Eckt resisted. In
summer he took to sleeping outside, under bridges. Even
there the heartier and most wanton sirens offered
themselves. As the devil will turn the tiniest crack into
a fissure a mile wide so did doubt displace virtue in
young Eckt. Logically, he thought, temptation required
the greatest effort of virtue when knowledge of that
thing resisted was freshest. Memory cooled was so
much less a lure than nerves still a'tingle from recent
experience. He thought that surely resisting after
succumbing would be the better training for the spiritual
muscle and sinew of virtue. This thought, this evil logic,
remained simmering in Eckt's mind and one fateful day....

Sunday break from blogging

It is such an effort to post something every day. Yet this is what the traditional press does and has done. A tough discipline. Makes me feel such a woosss, having the computer and its wonders and still wimping out here late Sunday night. I have material in development but not ready to post. In this experiment (fiction made on the fly) I am learning... There are ways to save time but overall production time is growing. That's because, I guess, improving the results can not but add time. Looked at one of these new NetBooks today. Now I write out the daily item with pencil on paper and transcribe it at the keyboard. Going directly into a file would save some time...it could travel. Costs $300 or so. The graphic component might be stable. I am getting by without a vector editor. What I use is pencil,pen,scanner and PaintShop7. I would like Adobe's Illustrator but for $500... I better wait. The story should be first. Interesting, worth following. The bells and whistles are secondary.

The Great Trek of Eckt

After Eckt's vision and promise to the Pollywog he started

what has become known as "The Great Trek of Eckt". Eckt

first took a path along the coast. It was there the need was

greatest. It was upon the coast the message would first be

received. Eckt found much resistance to the word. Many

times he was chased out of town and village for preaching.

His life was under threat. He had been denounced by the

High Exalted Keeper of the Temple of the Mono as an

apostate. Many felt it their duty to the one Mono to end

the life of the heretic, Eckt. On his journey he acquired
followers and acolytes. These he schooled in theology and

the Practical. When they were sufficiently steeped in the

ways of the Poly they were dispatched to seek alms. What

they collected was to be used to purchase land for the

building of monasteries, convents and nunneries. An early

convert was Eckt's sister, Ester. Ester traveled the land for

ten years collecting the funds. When she had enough she

settled upon a spot overlooking the sea. There she and the

first group of sisters built the great buildings that stand even

today. Now there is a whole town grown up at the base of the
great convent walls. The town is called Ester after the first

Sister Poly. Throughout the land the Convent is renowned .

It is name is called "The Merciful Sisters of Poly, Ester"

The sisters are known for their clean and convenient habits.

Story of Ancient Times

As the last polliwog was covered with salt and the last

cask sealed by the coopers we loaded the wagons. Now

we worked by torchlight. Saint Eckt's day had come

with the sun and with the sun's setting it was ended.
Wogglers young and old were weary but glad. As we

rested an old man told me the story of Saint Eckt.
Although from childhood men of the village had learned

the story Everyone listened quietly, sitting in a circle

around the fire, Polykabobs sizzling on spits. "A

thousand years ago" he began, "Give or take a hundred,

Saint Eckt was but a woggler, much as we are" The

story teller paused to turn a PolyKabob.

"In that time" he continued, "The Pollywogs would

land with any tide or storm". "Men took their chance
woggling. Not knowing when to journey to the shore".

"Many a Poly rotted for wont of salt" And that was

in a time of hunger. One day, the first Advent of Eckt,

for he was not then sainted - he had a vision. In his

vision a Polliwog did appear before Eckt and spoke

to the Saint saying. "Mark this day for your People,

Tell them for their sustenance we will give ourselves"
"Tell them" The Polliwog said,"On this one day, this

day moon and sun make highest tide, on this day we
are given. "Salt will preserve us for your lives as this

salten sea preserves us in ours" Saint Eckt was

enthralled as he listened. The apparition ended the

vision asking, "Will you tell them?" Eckt replied that

he would and he did. Saint Eckt was martyred for this.

But in spite of much tribulation the promise of the

Poly became known. The faith of Eckt's time, the
worship of Mono, was eventually eclipsed by the new

revelation. The advent of Eckt brought a new faith

to the land, Polytheism.

The advent of Saint Eckt

Dawn had barely broke when I heard banging at my door. I
was expecting someone, but not so early! In the middle of
cooking breakfast, and only half dressed, I stumbled toward
the door. Opening it I realized what had happened. I had
forgotten this was the day to set clocks ahead! "You've
forgotten the aspect of Eckt" my visitor said with a smile.
"Yes", I said. Standing beyond him I noticed half a dozen
villagers gathered along the path to the gate. They carried
poles and nets and wore tall yellow or lime green wading
boots. With a laugh the man said "You'd better hurry - the
tide is about to turn". Leaving him at the door I moved
quickly to don my best guess at the required outfit. Still
buttoning buttons and snapping snaps I joined the milling
group & we headed out. Breakfast, snatched from frying
pan and toaster, was stuffed into a pocket. Unbuttered
toast and bacon slices wrapped in the front page of
yesterday's paper.

As our group dribbled down a well worn path I could see we

were not alone. Off in the distance, climbing & descending

sandy dunes were other groups. The tang of salty air grew

triggering my appetite as we moved seaward. I reached for

the hastily assembled sandwich and ate. Unwrapping it I

read the headline on the paper."Record Polliwog run

expected". The sound of crashing waves was louder now

and on mounting the next dune we saw it - the edge of

the western sea. The water extended itself from beneath

a veil of fog. Its powerful pounding assault pushed foaming

brine up the steeply inclined beach. Up and up it rolled

only loosing momentum on reaching the ragged line of

seaweed and driftwood, the high tide mark. Two things

triggered the run I was told, highest tide and sun. We

stood and watched the dawn's rays burn away the fog.

"They'll be run'n boys!" one of the men shouted and

everyone responded with a roar, drown in the far

louder roar of the surf.

Good News !

Good news!, In trouble-shooting the Higgs Field Generator I
discovered a small trove of still entangled Higgs Bosons. I had
thought they had all leaked - but no, there was a large, but
unknowable quantity. Not nearly enough to get me away from
your beautiful and truely fine reality but enough for limited
communication with other worlds. This discovery has given me
hope and it seems hope comes in pairs. The other member of
this welcomed pair is an internet mirror in this world. It was
designed to overcome government blocking of sites. It is unique
in doing this by way of a novel use of quantum mechanics -
entangled photons. By using a multi-dimensional billard shot
via these two devices I will be able to post to my blog in the
universe I'm native to. By publishing here I will be publishing
there. Passing information requires much less energy than
moving physical objects. I've aquired a backlog of text describing
my voyages thru the multiverse. Time to dump this excess of
verbage. Tomorrow the first installment: In a world teasingly
like yours, history has diverged in interesting ways.

Oops, there goes the smoke detector, lunch is ready...

Hi, I've just arrived

Greetings to everyone in this reality, this randomly selected slice of space-time. You have a fine world, from what I've seen so far. The air is often breathable and at times quite pleasant. Colors are varied and rich (away from urban centers) and the natural design is very functional. I can hear you saying, as an aside to a spouse or offspring, where the hell is he from? I will go into the details later but simply put, a parallel reality, another universe ever so slightly different but unique and totally seperate. As a small example - spelling. You may think you've detected a word in these postings misspelled, not so. What you are noticing is an alternate way of spelling, a spelling that is perfectly acceptable where I come from. In fact I often find myself laughing at the way you here spell words. But I will try to adapt and adopt. More when I have the time - I am off now to work on the machine that got me here. My arrival was a bit of a crash landing, any port in a storm as you say. Not that Im dissapointed in your little planet. In truth I was heading for a world just a bit more advanced. I'm not complaining. I will learn to make the best of it - as most of you do. Thanks.