THE PARABLE OF THE ROOM
by Michael Sharp (www.michaelsharp.org)
Imagine for a moment that we are all sitting in one huge room. The room
that we are in has doors and windows and is like any other room that any
of us have been in except for the fact that the room is freezing cold.
In fact, it is so cold that everyone in the room has several layers of
warm clothing on: hats, gloves, and parkas to insulate us from the
bitter cold.
And so there we are huddled in the freezing room, desperate for warmth.
Nobody really knows how long we’ve been in this room. We just know it is
a long time. But suddenly, after what seems like an eternity, one among
us looks up from her huddled crouch and realizes that there is some kind
of strange contraption on her back. She strains to see what it is but
cannot quite make out the details. After a few moments of examination,
she notices that there is a string attached to the contraption. After a
moment’s hesitation, she pulls the string and a soft humming begins to
emanate from it. Nothing else happens for a moment or two and so she
sits back down and huddles against the cold.
While she is examining her contraption and pulling her string, a few
people notice her activity and stand to watch. After seeing what she is
doing, they too notice a contraption on their back and an attached
string but they do not pull the string. Instead they watch the girl as
she pulls her string. They watch to ensure no harm comes from this. They
watch as the girl sits down. Nothing happens and they immediately lose
interest and settle back down to resisting the bitter cold.
After a few moments, however, the girl who originally pulled the string
notices something. Something has changed in the air around her. “What is
it,” she thinks to herself. And then she realizes! The air around her
seems to be warming up, and rapidly. She can no longer see her breath
and her body is becoming uncomfortable under the extra load of clothing.
She strains her neck to look at the contraption and immediately realizes
that the contraption is some sort of personal heating system. Surprised,
she looks around and notices that everyone else is also wearing one just
like it.
Incredulous, she wonders why nobody has seen this heater before or never
pulled the string. Perhaps they were concentrating too hard against the
cold and simply did not see beyond the frost in their breath and the ice
on their clothes. Perhaps they simply believed that no other existence
was possible. No matter, after a few minutes she is becoming decidedly
uncomfortable and she now, with some degree of excitement, begins to
remove her clothing layer by layer as the air warms around her.
The people huddled immediately around her have now looked up and noticed
her excitement. What is more, those closest to her are also noticing a
change in the air temperature. The heater on her back is so powerful
that she has now affected the temperature a few meters all around her.
People have noticed.
People are warming up.
People are becoming uncomfortably warm.
They ask her what is happening and she explains about the heater on
their backs. She suggests that if they turn on the heaters, they could
warm up the room even more. She also advises that they should start
taking their layers of clothing off because once their heater is on,
their bodies will quickly become uncomfortable beneath the layers of
fabric.
Some, but not all, of her immediate neighbors take her advice and pull
the string. A few moments pass and the air around them rises a few
degrees. Feeling uncomfortable, they also begin to take off their clothes.
Now, there is a small bubble of excitement in the room. A few more
people (this time a little farther away from the center) are beginning
to look up and wonder what all the excitement is about. There are even
people standing off away in the corners who have heard the bustle and
are straining their eyes and ears to see and hear. A buzz begins to move
through the room and a few people here and there, perhaps the ones who
are most resistant to the cold, look up, stand up, and wonder what is
going on. They ask those around them but most of the freezing people
they ask are too cold to worry and too bitter to care. Still, some
people are talking and the word is spreading. They say something about
warmer air and that some kind of heating system is available to everyone.
Some are even saying that people are taking of their clothing. The more
skeptical laugh at this. However, the braver ones, the ones who are
tired of being cold, the ones who trust the rumors, the ones who can see
the small island of people beginning to dance in the warmth, strain to
look at their backside and lo and behold, they see a string attached to
a contraption. Getting swept up in the rising excitement, they pull the
string and the air around them immediately begins to warm.
They begin to feel warm uncomfortable.
They begin to take off their clothes.
Now as we pause and look around at the room we notice islands of radiant
heat in a sea of bitter cold. Here and there, dotted throughout this
huge room of individuals, people are starting to realize that the bitter
cold is not something they have to live with. More and more see that
within their grasp is all the heat they need to get warm and stay warm.
Still, and at first, it is only a few people here and there. The ones
who are more adventurous, the ones who are tired, the ones who are
desperate for a new world, these are the first ones to pull the string.
They talk, of course. They point out the rising heat. They excitedly
exclaim “look, we don’t need too many clothes!” But most people in the
room are too busy trying to keep warm to give them much thought.
“Crazy,” they think to themselves. “They’ll all just freeze to death.”
For a while, it seems, little progress is made. More and more turn on
and heat up, but against the huddled masses, it seems like a drop in the
bucket. However, the heaters are powerful; far more powerful than we
initially think. And after a certain point, it is not just the local
temperature around the individual heaters that is affected. When enough
have turned on their heaters, and when the heaters have been running
long enough, a ****ft occurs. Instead of localized islands of heat, the
entire room is impacted and the ambient temperature begins to slowly
rise. Once The ****ft has occurred, everyone, no matter how inured
against the cold, no matter how tightly huddled against the arctic
blasts, begins to feel the rising temperature of the room.
After a certain point, nobody can ignore what is going on.
At this point individuals in random locations in the entire room begin
to look up to see what is up. Hundreds and, soon, thousands now notice
the excited activity of a handful of their once frozen compatriots. They
ask, with some confusion, “what is going on.”
They are told, “there are heaters! There is warmth. It takes only a
moment. Just pull the string.”
They see the excitement, they feel the heat, and now, swept up in the
growing excitement, waves and waves of frozen room dwellers pull the
string. They don’t even wait to start taking off their layers. Even
before they pulled the string, they felt the warmth and were becoming
uncomfortable beneath the clothing.
Of course, now that so many are tuning in and turning on, the rise in
temperature is no longer subtle. Now the thermometer rises a degree
every few minutes and the consequent discomfort rises fast as well. It
is at this point, as we gaze at waves and waves of people jumping to
their feet, turning on their heaters, and stripping their clothes, that
we begin to see the problem. Fear has begun to cascade in waves through
the huddles masses. Many people, whose only experience had been to
huddle against the bitter cold, stare around them in total dismay. The
room is now heating so fast, and people are stripping so quickly, that
they are confused and befuddled. Questions flood through their minds.
People all around them are staring and smiling and pointing and
stripping. Some have even reached the point of total undress and are now
running bare ****d around the room jumping with the sheer joy of
freedom. They are confused. “What is all this about?”, they wonder. What
is worse, all this confusion is compounded by the pain they are in. The
room is so warm now, and their clothing so thick, that they are
literally beginning to bake inside their clothes.
It is a crisis, but it is one the people in the room seem able to
handle. There are many who have already weathered The ****ft and they
understand the process. They reach out, they explain, they help removing
clothing, they calm, they smile, they respond and there are so many
individuals with lightened layers of clothing that there is lots of
help, lots of sup****t, and lots of reassurance.
Most people respond.
Most begin taking off their clothes.
Some even turn on their heaters but at this point there is enough people
with backpacks on and heaters turned up that it no longer matters if the
new comers are turning on their heaters or not. In fact, at this point,
people are starting to advise against it. The temperature is a perfect
28 degrees.
The ****ft has occurred. No more heat is required.
Still, there are problem areas. A few, a small handful, cannot cope with
the rapidity of the change. They have to assimilate information too fast
and they cannot. They see the frenzied dancing and the smiling faces.
They see the ****d people and amidst all the odd sensations they are
experiencing, they cannot process the pain in their body. A few snap and
run screaming around the room. Some are mad. Others are shouting, “the
end of the world is here.” Others experience total panic and flee out of
the room or leap from the windows. Those that can be restrained are
gently held and their clothes gently removed. The new reality is
explained and they are held until they are calm. Those that cannot be
restrained or who flail too violently are left to themselves until they
exhaust their reserves. When they are silent, they are approached and
assistance is given. Those who “leave” too soon are lost, but only
tem****arily. Eventually, they calm down and return without clothing.
How many will panic? How many will need to be restrained? How many will
“leave the room” and have to come back at a later date? It is hard to
say at this point. It will all depend on the action and initiative of
those who have gone before. In fact, how fast the process unfolds, how
quick we shall restore the calm, how smoothly we shall navigate The
****ft will depend entirely on the concerted actions of the people in the
room.
Still, there are no unknowns here.
There is no chance.
It is all up to you.
If you are one of the ones that has gone ahead, reach out.
If you are one of those that remain beneath the layers, reach out.
There is nothing to fear.
The room is warm.
Namaste
Michael Sharp
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