Male

The fires burned bright, the thin licks of flame glowed in a beautiful geodesic sphere pattern at the feet of a man. A Person watched from within the crowd. This Person had experienced more joy in the previous week than he had in the Twenty Seven years of life prior to that week. This Person was feeling enhanced. Joyful. In a state of ecstasy. This was the most beautiful moment to ever happen in the Person’s life. Twenty Seven years of life had led up to this moment of incredible happiness.

It was at this moment that the Person noticed how dry the playa had made his hands. Pulling out some moisturizer, he applied it to his hands, and then looked around at all the other dry hands around him. Surely these people need moisturizer as much as the Person did. So the Person offered it to every person within earshot. Dressed in a pink furry poodle outfit the Person dispensed the hydrating white cream to all who would take it. It was then that the Person became a Moist Pup.

The Moist Pup was so excited. He felt he could change the world. Upon returning to his home he smiled and greeted a man passing on the street, and there was nothing. No connection, no hello, no happiness. The Moist Pup was not deterred though, on the subway later that day he smiled at more people. Their eyes quickly averted to the ads on the ceiling, or to the devices in their pockets.

Oh how the Moist Pup was crushed! The fire of life was burning so bright and he was unable to share it. The world marched on with people incapable of feeling what the Moist Pup felt. The Moist Pup had to find others like him. He had to. The Moist Pup’s heart could not take being at arms length from the entire world.

After much wandering the Moist Pup found a tribe of people who had also felt their lives burning. They too had touched the perfect moment when it came to them. The Moist Pup joined them. Some people were nice. Some people in this new tribe did not have a burning desire to see the fires again. Some thought the fire should be extinguished. The Moist Pup tried very hard to play nice, but did not always succeed.

The fire in the Moist Pup flickered out over the next few years. Sometimes from things his other tribal friends said. Sometimes from seeing too much (like the learn’d Astronomer.) With no fire left the Moist Pup became like many of his fellow tribes men, incapable of feeling the fire that once burned inside him. He remembered the fire though, the way it touched him, made him feel alive.

One day the Moist Pup decided it was time to be Very Serious, and he said and did some things which made some people very angry. And so the people who were angry made sure the Moist Pup knew he was no longer wanted. The Moist Pup went away so that the people could figure things out on their own, and they did. The people decided there were Others that would do a better job at being Very Serious. The Moist Pup thought it was safe to return, and he did. The tribes people accepted him, and he thought it would be funny to give them the same hard time they had given him. The Moist Pup had changed much since his fire had been extinguished. He’d become jaded, and filled with the darkest of powers: snark. The Moist Pup was acting a bit like a fucko.

The Others were new. They were not ready to be prodded. So they used their powers to banish the Moist Pup. (Deservedly so!)

The Moist Pup saw that he had angered so many people and knew that the Moist Pup was no longer the person he wanted to be. And like that the Person stepped out from the Moist Pups skin, and watched as that angry, unhappy, pensive, and jaded skin shriveled up and turned to dust. In the cool and quiet breeze that surrounded the Person the dust floated away, never to be seen again.

The Person knew he had to be more careful this time. He had to find a new skin that would allow the fire to always burn. It had to be a skin that in itself was wonderful enough to remind the Person of who wanted to be in the moments when he was not feeling the flame inside.

The person had an idea. He liked math. Numbers and logic brought the Person satisfaction and joy. The Person would flow through logical and mathematical problems, his entire soul and being becoming intertwined in the information pathways he created. So the Person asked himself, “what number is the best number of all?” After much thought he decided it was the number 1. Every other number respects 1. Every other number knows 1 intimately. The number 1 is truthful.

The Person realized that the number 1 was in fact… wonderful. And just like that the Person became 1durphul. The new 1durphul skin that the Person wore become more and more a part of him. He could look in the mirror and see the 1durphul person he wanted to be. All he had to do was say his own name “1durphul” and know what the right path was. 1durphul remembered a time in his life when he was friendly, and able to connect with others without fearing being hurt. What had happened to that boy? How did the adult Person become so walled off from the world. Why was the flame the only thing that could bring back the connection?

1durphul realized he needed to open his heart again, to allow people in. To trust that others would recognize his efforts to be a wonderful person. To open his heart to connecting with all the people around him, especially those who did not feel the flame, or never did. 1durphul was surprised to find that many of the people around him had sought a closer connection for a long time, but felt an inability to create that connection. 1durphul felt deep sorrow that so much time had been wasted, that he had allowed so many wonderful people to stay at arms length. So 1durphul embraced them and his life was enriched.