| Choices Chapter Five |
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Whoever had stocked the shed had thought well, but sparingly. There was a small bellows,
and a cunningly crafted blacksmith’s station. The plow turned out to be fairly easy to make,
and the land was ready to be farmed.
But Carter knew that soil could become depleted; he worked ten to twelve hours a day,
readying the land and then planting starter seeds for the coming spring; he did not know
exactly how much time he had, but he did not want to get caught unawares.
And he was not, and at least not that first year. He was not sure now exactly when the first of
the people appeared. They came from the north, in dribs and drabs, uncertain about their
future or about exactly what had happened in the north. They spoke in a halting tongue, and
Carter was more unsure than ever that he was still speaking English.
The stories were all similar, and some of the people knew each other while others did not.
They came from the north, where the hard winds had come, but the snow and the water had
stopped falling from the sky, where the cold of winter seemed to get longer every year and a
call had gone out from the wise one’s that the tribes should move to the south.
Carter taught them of the soil, and Shahhan taught them other things, preserving, curing, and
simple medicines made from plants and herbs.
Carter had thought long and hard, even after the people had started arriving, about what to
teach them of God; he had had long discussions with Shahhan about this, who disagreed with
much of what he said. He found that what they could agree on was not whether Jesus was the
actual, literal son of God, but that what he taught was evident to be God’s truth - not to judge,
to love all people, to help them and treat them with mercy. And that all of that resulted in
forgiveness.
So he spoke in this way, teaching the philosophies without the name, though the name Jesus
did arise in the discussions - he was after all the prophet and the son of God. They would
come naturally to it, Carter reasoned. The words he taught, and the lesson’s, were those that
Jesus had taught. He would trust to the Holy Spirit to guide these people in the right
direction.
Carter and Shahhan were both more or less unaware of the time that had gone by; they had
not told the migrants how they had come to be there, and the intelligence of the people
quickly took what rudimentary technologies they had showed them and began to immediately
improve upon them.
Towns sprang up, seemingly overnight, and then cities began to form, and Carter and
Shahhan stayed in their mountains, isolated but part of the growing new world. They raised
orphans when they were brought to them, and stayed out of the conflicts between the
different groups of people when they could.
They aged, but slowly. Carter’s hair went a bit whiter, his eyes grew more winkles as well as
the corners of his mouth. In his eyes, Shahhan grew more and more beautiful.
Diseases came and went, and one of the grandsons of an orphan that had been raised by the
Old One’s (as some people had begun calling Carter and Shahhan) developed a vaccine for
the disease. Carter was amazed at the advances the people had made, and the way they had
done it, in a much more organic way than he had known on earth.
It never occurred to him that it was because of the way he had melded science and the idea
that it was a description of God’s work, and not to be feared - he had no idea it was the way
he had taught churches to operate, not as monolith’s of thought, but as places where the
Teachings were adhered to; love, mercy and compassion - and the forgiveness which springs
from them, but in which all ideas were open.
When he was asked to deliver a load of the vaccines to some other mountain towns that he
knew, and where he knew many of the people and families personally, he accepted without
hesitation.
and a cunningly crafted blacksmith’s station. The plow turned out to be fairly easy to make,
and the land was ready to be farmed.
But Carter knew that soil could become depleted; he worked ten to twelve hours a day,
readying the land and then planting starter seeds for the coming spring; he did not know
exactly how much time he had, but he did not want to get caught unawares.
And he was not, and at least not that first year. He was not sure now exactly when the first of
the people appeared. They came from the north, in dribs and drabs, uncertain about their
future or about exactly what had happened in the north. They spoke in a halting tongue, and
Carter was more unsure than ever that he was still speaking English.
The stories were all similar, and some of the people knew each other while others did not.
They came from the north, where the hard winds had come, but the snow and the water had
stopped falling from the sky, where the cold of winter seemed to get longer every year and a
call had gone out from the wise one’s that the tribes should move to the south.
Carter taught them of the soil, and Shahhan taught them other things, preserving, curing, and
simple medicines made from plants and herbs.
Carter had thought long and hard, even after the people had started arriving, about what to
teach them of God; he had had long discussions with Shahhan about this, who disagreed with
much of what he said. He found that what they could agree on was not whether Jesus was the
actual, literal son of God, but that what he taught was evident to be God’s truth - not to judge,
to love all people, to help them and treat them with mercy. And that all of that resulted in
forgiveness.
So he spoke in this way, teaching the philosophies without the name, though the name Jesus
did arise in the discussions - he was after all the prophet and the son of God. They would
come naturally to it, Carter reasoned. The words he taught, and the lesson’s, were those that
Jesus had taught. He would trust to the Holy Spirit to guide these people in the right
direction.
Carter and Shahhan were both more or less unaware of the time that had gone by; they had
not told the migrants how they had come to be there, and the intelligence of the people
quickly took what rudimentary technologies they had showed them and began to immediately
improve upon them.
Towns sprang up, seemingly overnight, and then cities began to form, and Carter and
Shahhan stayed in their mountains, isolated but part of the growing new world. They raised
orphans when they were brought to them, and stayed out of the conflicts between the
different groups of people when they could.
They aged, but slowly. Carter’s hair went a bit whiter, his eyes grew more winkles as well as
the corners of his mouth. In his eyes, Shahhan grew more and more beautiful.
Diseases came and went, and one of the grandsons of an orphan that had been raised by the
Old One’s (as some people had begun calling Carter and Shahhan) developed a vaccine for
the disease. Carter was amazed at the advances the people had made, and the way they had
done it, in a much more organic way than he had known on earth.
It never occurred to him that it was because of the way he had melded science and the idea
that it was a description of God’s work, and not to be feared - he had no idea it was the way
he had taught churches to operate, not as monolith’s of thought, but as places where the
Teachings were adhered to; love, mercy and compassion - and the forgiveness which springs
from them, but in which all ideas were open.
When he was asked to deliver a load of the vaccines to some other mountain towns that he
knew, and where he knew many of the people and families personally, he accepted without
hesitation.
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 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
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