The Dad taught The Boy about chivalry. He taught him about the knights and a round table. The Dad taught The Boy about the goodness behind that kingdom, the truth encapsulated into Camelot. The Old Man taught The Boy about the Darkness. He taught The Boy about Merlin and Morgana, the struggles between Light and Darkness, and The Boy absorbed all he could about the lessons that The Dad, and The Old Man shared with him. In his mind his became both a Warrior of Light and The Encompassor of The Dark. He wanted to know everything he could about being a Human Being, a Man of Knowledge.
The Dad had a friend that would visit from time to time. His friend would walk with The Dad and The Old Man in the fields late at night talking about the acts of a Warrior, being a hunter. These Hunters stalk Death. They Hunt and are being Hunted by what The Old Man called The Terrible Other, The Shadow of the Stalker, also coined as The Angel Of Death.
Very late on an evening The Boy was sleeping in his tent next to Winston, The Dad's Friend tapped on the side of the tent and woke The Boy. When The Boy climbed out of the tent The Dad's Friend was there waiting for him. The Boy looked at him, beneath His short black sombrero The Dad's Friend had eyes that were shinning a silver light as terrible as anything The Boy had ever seen. In a voice that sounded straight from Hell The Dad's Friend spoke, "I See You." Then he ran back into the fields. The Boy was left sitting in the grass in front of His tent next to Winston. He was petrified.
The next morning The Old Man brought him a plate of tortillas, some chicken strips, and a cup of café' mocha, chocolate coffee. The Boy ate, drank and thought about the past night. The Old Man just said, "You'll understand someday. We are the Toltec." Then he went back into Winston.
The Boy took a shower and did his chores. The Dad was waiting for him in the horse stalls. He had the stalls cleaned already but there was a large metal cauldron full of water sitting in the middle of the stable. The Dad instructed The Boy to stand low in a Riding Horse and slap the water with first the palm of his hand, then the back of his hand rotating back and forth right to left, left to right and so forth. "Don't stop until I come back for you." The Dad repeated twice, "Savvy?" Then He walked away.
The Boy did as he was instructed. After about an hour his hands began becoming numb. After two hours the numbness translated into the kind of pain that a person shouldn't feel. The hands felt like they would melt. After 4 hours they began feeling like falling stones attached to two tightly wound ropes. The Boy's hands were becoming weapons.
The Dad returned just as the sun was falling behind the horizon with a bucket of ice and submerged The Boy's hands into the ice. The Boy winced in pain, then the pain went away and His hands suddenly felt very good. The Dad pulled The Boy's hands out of the ice and dried them with a towel. He showed The Boy his hands, they looked red, but nothing worse for the wear. They felt powerful.
Again that night The Dad's Friend showed up at the tent. This time he shook The Boy's hand and said, "It was very good meeting you. I See You." Then he got into his car and drove away down the road to the highway. The Dad waved at his retreat, and The Old Man was laughing.
Episodes like these repeated themselves over the course of several years until The Boy voiced His urge to walk to the mountains and live with the Zen Monks there. The Dad said these words to The Boy, and they changed the course of his life, "It's Easy to be a Holy man sitting in front of a tree alone with no one but the tree and yourself to keep you company, But what of the man who walks amongst the people learning and absorbing everything from life that He can take? This is the way of The Toltec."
Peace and Balance,
John
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