Sometime ago at
dusk in the village of Common, a
little girl called Nowhere, walked
down the street of Mediocre. This was
the main path to all the houses of people of Common, to the stream of Routine,
which was downtown the village of Common,
to the marketplace called “Monotone”,
centred where all the people of Common
do their daily activities.
It was not new
that she walked the path with her friends. They sang the songs of "failure and average" and played
with the mud of “never and
impossibilities”. Something common to these Common girls was common. They used common sense, lived within the
neighbourhood of the Ordinary and
never stepped out of common village.
Common people were full of it! They were known
as people of “same-same”, “copycat” and “conformity”. They added daily. The only people that were added to
them range from new born babies to brides from neighbouring village. Although,
only few new people were added from outside, the town of Common was a very large one; at least six children per family and
over a thousand families in a colony. There were several taboos and norms in
the town of Common, particularly
about inter-marrying with neighbouring villages. It was a rule that new people
joining this village must learn the ways of Common
before being accepted. Twenty nights before a bride joins the village of
common, the women of Common, popularly
known as “Simple”, carry their oils
of General and bath the woman at the
stream of Routine. It was their ritual. They teach her their ways. If
peradventure, she could not learn their ways or brought something new, she was
rejected. People from the town of Anybodies,
Ordinary and Plain were easy to
marry but women from such neighbourhood as Exceptional, Extraordinary, Outstanding and Unusual were typically hated. The men of Common detest with passion women with tribal marks of Greatness and weaves of Big dreams. They were sore distraught,
if they ever found out their women had a lineage with people of these towns.
When
the elders of the town of Common sit
at the weekly towns meeting of Spectators,
their main mission is to discuss people of other neighbourhoods who did not
believe in the ways of Common. Abominable,
un-becoming, unacceptable were words not farfetched from the mouth of the
town’s head-chief, who was also known as Ordinary.
“Those people should never be seen around us; in fact our children should never
cross the barriers of their town gate”, he would say with all conviction.
These were also familiar
agreements by the town’s men. People who defiled the common's rule and
regulations were thrown in the wild of Uncommon.
Nowhere detest the town of Common but she dared not say it. She silently walks the woods of
loneliness to scream aloud, “I have a
dream”. She sneaks behind the towns chief chambers and watch prisoners do
the things they learnt from extraordinary town. Although, they were strange,
she had the curiosity to learn their ways.
“What if I was
caught?” she asked herself. It was a rule that, if anyone was caught near the
prisoner’s chamber. The fellow would face the same fate. No one could be bailed
and many were openly denounced, except they denounce their Big-Dreams Creed and re-learn the ways of Common. Graduates of Common
were known to paste on their walls, “Great Commoner; Commoner for life”.
Sometimes at
night, nowhere would sneak to the neighbourhood of the Distinguished. It was
the smallest town in the whole of the region, yet the strongest. She wanted to
be the better self; the version of greatness, Common had never seen. The commoners
could never accept that. They all profess
to be strong. They called the Distinguished,
“Devils”, instilling fears in their children. Nowhere could remember asking her mother about the people of Distinguished and she shouted, “If you ever go near that land they will eat
you up”. It was one of the old fables that people of Distinguished became lions when they cite the people of Common. But the few times, Nowhere was there, the Distinguished extended their hands,
asking her to join their towns meeting.
Sitting on the
odd tree that had been 200 years old according to the town’s history and the
oldest tree in that neighbourhood, she realized that people of Common were never satisfied. They
complained and were always sad. It was common to them to blame one person,
neighbours or blame events. One of the prestigious jobs in Common was to do duties in the king’s palace but Nowhere remembered that even the vibrant
youth of common who attended to the “usual” duties in the king palace were also
never happy. This made her sad and afraid that she too would never be happy in
the land of Common.
There was a mad
man lost in the town of the Common;
they called him “Great things”. He
was called mad, not because he was really insane but because he did strange
things, and said uncommon words. No one could bind him and it was a wide guess
that people in the prison got something from him and became rebellious to the
town of Common. He was banished to
sit at the far end of the town where people could hardly see him. Although, he
was banned, yet he could not be stopped but he seldom came out of hiding during
common’s festival and displays his talents. He promised never to leave Common and swore by his fathers. The
king hated him so much that Great things
could not be sent away from Common. Great things was also a king, whoever,
chose to stay in Common to win a few.
Just right in the
middle of the thought, nowhere realized a simple trick to her mysteries. She
jumped off the tree of odd and shouted, “I have a plan; the mad man of Great things”.
Thank you for visiting and reading............. story inspired by Dream Giver (Bruce Wilkinson).
