Shel Silverstein, whose name means "Of the Silver Chalice," died recently. He was a gifted writer of children's stories, including "A Light in the Attic," and "Where the Sidewalk Ends."
In Loving Memory
Of Dear Soul Shel Silverstein
The Orenda Project and the MuseNet Players
Are Pleased and Delighted to Offer
A Mythical Creation Dream
Of the Communication Age
For Musers of All Ages...
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Dawn Dance
1. The Dawn of Consciousness
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Once upon a thyme there was a garden. Among all the creatures of the
Garden of Orenda, there lived naught but one of a kindly unicorn.
The unicorn walked softly and browsed mirthfully on a patch of ivy,
and knew not of the other creatures. Near one corner of the garden
dwelled a young fawn browsing silently on tender shoots. Near
another corner dwelled a young faun nibbling quietly on oats.
Neither faun nor fawn had noticed each other, not to mention the
solitary unicorn browsing in the ivy.
Dawn Dance
2. The Advent of Winkin', Blinkin' and Nod
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One day the faun chanced to encounter the fawn not far from the patch
of ivy. Startled and surprised by the unexpected appearance of the
faun, the fawn felt a slight tremor of uncertainty and apprehension,
for she had never seen a faun before. Intrigued and amused by the
sight of the fawn, the faun felt an unfamiliar but urgent desire to
approach the timid and trembling fawn. The faun fancied himself
gallant and brave. The fawn blushed softly but stood her ground for
she did not wish to betray any sign of timidity. Their eyes locked
briefly, arousing their senses and keening their fences. The faun
tossed a glance. The fawn batted it back with a flutter of lash. As
the fawn blinked her eye, the faun sensed a trifle coolness in the
air, which came upon him in a wave of shuddering ripples. The faun
laughed and blinked oddly in startled reaction, for these were strange
and weird sensations. The fawn, not to be outdone, returned blink for
blink, keeping her blinks in tune with his. Before long they were
blinking in synch. After a few synchronous blinks, the weird feelings
subsided and both began to grow tired of tossing monotone gazes. But
as the weirdness subsided, both faun and fawn became intrigued by the
slightly naughty feeling of becoming slightly wired.
The fawn, being the more creative of the pair, invented a new game.
She began modulating her eyeblinks to enliven the game, and to
discover just how carefully the faun was paying attention to the
rhythm of her rhymes. The faun was sometimes slow to catch on to the
fawn's game of theme and variations, but when he felt he got it, he
would tender a nod. If the faun had caught on, the fawn mimicked his
nod. But if the faun was still out to lunch, the fawn echoed not with
a nod, but by turning her head to the side. A nod for being keen, and
shake of the head for not being keen.
All this winking, blinking, and nodding enabled the faun and the fawn
to jointly invent a mirthful way to begin communicating. To open a
connection, each gave the other two interlaced blinks, a wink, and a
nod.
Dawn Dance
3. A Chance To Prance
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There was a watering hole in the Garden of Orenda, where the creatures
of the garden slaked their thirst. One eventful day the faun chanced
to encounter a fawn at the watering hole. With two blinks, a wink and
a nod, they soon became certain they had recognized and acknowledged
each other's presence. Prancing with delight, the fawn signaled a new
game, but alas the faun was a tad slow to catch on. The more the fawn
pranced, the more the faun stood still to watch the show in stunned
confusion. Eventually the fawn gave up in anger and disgust and took
a drink of water, for all that prancing had made her thirsty. The
faun's bewilderment and confusion was matched by the fawn's feelings
of ingenuity and foolishness at having tried in vain to engage the
faun in a new kind of dance.
As a soft rain began to fall, the faun and the fawn heard an ominous
rolling thunder in the distance. The invading storm broke up the
game, and both scurried home to shelter. While it was not the
happiest of days, both felt hopeful of a future chance encounter.
Dawn Dance
4. The Invention of Meditative Dreaming
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That night, as the faun slept, a dream came into his sleep. He dreamed
of encountering the fawn again and engaging her on better terms. He
dreamed of her prancing, he dreamed of her gamboling, he dreamed of
her every move. When he awoke in the mourning, the faun felt refreshed
and eager for a new day.
The fawn dreamed too, but it was a different kind of dream. She
dreamed of a scene of quiet and emptiness, much like a blank canvas.
Gradually, inevitably, as if by an invisible hand, the canvas filled
with a tangled web of multicolored lines. Gradually, invisibly, there
arose in her ear a rising buzz of discordant sounds, a harsh, dunning,
and deafening cacophony. When she awoke in the mourning, the fawn
felt troubled with vague feelings of doom and gloom. The fawn wanted
to describe her dream to her mother, but in her sorrow, the fawn
decided not to burden her mother with the dilemma of making sense of
such a strange dream. As so the fawn wondered in silent puzzlement what
such a strange dream could mean.
Dawn Dance
5. The Invention of Dancing and Prancing
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A few days later, the faun and the fawn chanced to meet near the ivy
patch. This time the fawn seemed a trifle moody and melancholy. So
the faun began to prance, awkwardly at first, not unlike the way he
had seen the fawn prance before at the watering hole. For a while,
the fawn tried to ignore the antics of the prancing faun, by
pretending not to notice. But eventually the faun got so carried
away, he stumbled on a root of ivy and took an undignified fall,
whereupon the fawn began to nod gleefully, although she secretly felt
sorry for him. It was not one of the faun's better days, for he was
feeling both embarrassed and mortified, not to mention oddly indignant
at the root of his stumble.
But the day was not a total loss. That night, when each of them
dreamed, some helpful insights came to each, and both woke up in the
mourning feeling more aware and more confident. Each understood a
little better what they each needed to work on.
Eventually the faun and the fawn could meet near the ivy and dance
their prances with increasingly melodic harmony. And both were feeling
ever more connected and mirthful.
Dawn Dance
6. The Days of Whine and Roses
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In the days and weeks that followed, the fawn liked to browse on her
tender shoots, while the faun liked to nibble his oats, and they both
looked forward to chance encounters near the ivy. Neither one knew
what the day would bring. Some days were sunny and rosy and their
adventures and gamboling went well. On other days one of them would
try a creative new gambit and things would go to hell in a handbasket.
Gambles didn't always pay off, and one or the other would become upset
at falling behind. These were the days of whine and roses. Eventually
the fawn and the faun worked out a very clever arrangement. Whenever
the fawn felt like introducing a new form of play, she would signal
the faun of her intentions and wait for a signal back that he was
ready for something novel and different. Eventually, the fawn became
expert at guessing how much variation and novelty she could introduce
without taxing the faun's ability to follow her lead.
Dawn Dance
7. A Gallant Goat Goeth Forth
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One day, the faun had an idea for something fresh, so he signaled his
desire to do something different. Now, the faun had not been very
creative, compared to the fawn, so she had some reservations about
what oddity he had in mind. She was curious and apprehensive at the
same time. And so she wrestled with signaling "I'm keen" or "I'm not
keen," which rather confused the faun. He wondered, "Will she, won't
she, will she, won't she, will she join the dance?" The tension of
indecision was palpable.
Now you may be wondering whatever happened to the unicorn. As
providence would have it, the unicorn was not far away in the ivy,
unseen and unaware of the prancing and dancing games of the fawn and
the faun.
As the fawn pondered her options, the faun thought she was being coy,
waiting for him to take some initiative for a change. And so, feeling
his oats, he roundly surprised her with a rather fresh gambit that
left the fawn stunned and feeling struck blindsided and off guard.
She didn't know how to react. A nod of assent would mean admitting and
acknowledging that he had thought of something quite novel, exciting,
and fresh. Nodding dissent might stifle his creativity, leaving it up
to her to relieve the inevitable boredom. And so she signaled neither
way, but found herself rolling her head in a small circle instead.
The faun, whose keenness has been in some doubt, interpreted the
fawn's mixed signal as reluctant assent, or at least not as a definite
objection. What the fawn meant was for him to wait, but alas, there
was no clear signal for wait. So when the fawn rolled her head, the
faun interpreted the new signal to his advantage to mean, "I don't care
one way or the other," while the fawn, upon reflection, would have
actually preferred the faun to have read the head roll as "hold off a
moment while I ponder the issue."
Dawn Dance
8. The Dawn of the Noughty Bit
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Over time, the circular head motion came to be used to signal
different messages at different times. Sometimes it only meant "hold
your horses while I ponder the issue." Sometimes it meant "I have no
preference." Sometimes it meant "I am wistful of something nebulous
that I know not how to ask for." Sometimes it meant "I am wishing for
something specific that I want you to guess." The Noughty Bit came to
be associated with feelings of apprehension, indifference, wistfulness
and wishfulness.
The up and down nod, also know as Keenness, came to be marked with a
new symbol: |
The back and forth head shake, also known as Dullness, or Lowness came
to be marked with the symbol: --
And the Noughty Bit came to be marked with the symbol: o
Whenever the Noughty Bit was misconstrued, the Faun and the Fawn would
become cross with each other. This led to a fourth symbol, for being
Cross: x
Since there were four distinct ways to interpret the noughty bit,
there was roughly one way in four of assured happiness, and three
chances in four of potentially being randomly shocked or unpleasantly
surprised.
Dawn Dance
9. Disturbing the Peace
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The advent of the noughty bit subtly changed the culture in the Garden
of Orenda. Instead of things being Most Definite, there arose a loss
of Definiteness. When this happened, the garden felt more like an
arena, so some folks began to call it The Garden of Orena, by dropping
the 'd' in Orenda. The lost 'D' also stood for Delight, which
mysteriously had begun to decline as well.
Regrettably, the Faun and the Fawn were not insightful enough to
realize that they needed four separate signals in place of the noughty
bit, and so they found themselves playing an unintentional game of
Noughts and Crosses. It wasn't a game they had chosen to play.
Rather it had been thrust upon them unbidden by the Great Spirit as a
consequence of not paying better attention to the finer details of
their emerging and evolving bilateral communication protocols.
Dawn Dance
10. Gallantry Falters
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One day, while the Faun and the Fawn were gamboling with reckless
abandon near the Ivy Patch. The Faun began to signal his intention to
introduce a fresh gambit. In the meantime, the Fawn, who had begun to
realize the pair were already gamboling dangerously close to the edge,
felt a need for a rest, so she rolled her head to signal the Noughty
Bit.
As chance would have it, the Faun misread the Faun's response as "I'm
game for more fun." So just as the Fawn lowered her defenses to
relax, the Faun astonished her with a lulu of a fresh gambit, taking
her entirely by surprise. She was shocked, stunned, and raging with
indignation at the insensitivity of the boorish faun, who in turn was
bewildered by the fawn's unexpected and agitated reaction to his fresh
gambit. The ensuing commotion made such a racket that it drew the
attention of the Unicorn who had been quietly browsing unseen in the
nearby patch of ivy. The poor Unicorn, caught in the cross fire, hid
in the ivy and witnessed the whole terrifying scene. There was much
whining and bleating and gnashing of teeth as the Faun and the Fawn
fought and fought and fought.
The word, "fought" means to mix up "feeling" and "thought", and this
was the frightened Unicorn's first exposure to more evolved creatures
in the garden engaged in any kind of inter-creature communication.
The Unicorn, whose skin had been snow white, became so distressed, he
lost momentarily control of his bladder and inadvertently stained his
coat yellow. And that is how the Yellow Unicorn came to learn how
creatures in the Garden of Orena communicate their fears, desires, and
needs.
Dawn Dance
11. Gall Falleth
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Eventually the Yellow Unicorn recovered from the trauma of witnessing
the pissing contest and eventually joined the Faun and the Fawn. They
all three played Noughts and Crosses together, oblivious of the
unappreciated bug in the Noughty Bit.
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Beginnings
1. The Garden of Arena
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One upon a time, there were two yellow unicorns in a garden...
o o
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o
o o
Rice Care
At God's Behest
We Humbly Offer
Myth and Merriment
Reflecting Mirthful Art
Copyright 1999, The Orenda Project
Copyright 1999, The Mirth Project
Copyright 1999, The MuseNet Project
This story is on the web at
http://www.musenet.info/orenda/noughty.html