Story Endings

More and more people get off the train, as they are now more exposed to that intuitive intelligence inside of them, as they begin to listen to it. They may not be sure how to exist outside of the train -the train was always part of everyone’s identity- but they are confident in their ability to create a new way of life, co-create a new collective identity. Some people are still terrified of the unknown, for an abundance of reasons. Those getting off are seeing that these people are too reluctant to listen, so as they get off they try to pull the train away from the cliff edge, by sheer manual force and by any crafty means they can imagine. And they save the train. Eventually, life is outside the train. But the people do not abandon the train, they place it at the top of a hillside and make a statue of it, there to remind them of humility and of all that is to be imprinted and remembered from the old times.

—

We rebuilt the train, only there’s no longer different classes for passengers, and all the people who work on the train are treated well, and have a universal income that suits all, there is hierarchy but decentralised power and the train is fuelled by less than it needs to continue forever, using solar power to feed all the services and people on the train, taking only what’s needed at the time and giving back more as it can and as it very, very slowly slows over the next millennium, always harmonious, always with equality, equity and closeness, kindness and care for all, since we are all one in every way, and always will be

—

Since the train stopped, we’ve seen so many odd, shocking, and inspiring things. People outside their train cars protesting to be let back on to enjoy their window views and demanding their familiar entitlements served by others. Tensions outside the train bringing rise to tragedies, now more visible to all. A pair of humans board a shiny new train to the sky, launch, and arrive at the sky station to much applause. People from different cars, witnessing tragedy on tragedy declaring enough, and banding together in solidarity, and confront and witness more tragedies. Reports that despite the apparent stoppage, the train is still moving, slowly, and the upcoming cliff, still crumbling away.

—

The people are dazed and confused. What does it mean to live off the train? They feel the expansiveness of the world around them — the possibility, the sounds, the smells, the feeling of a cool breeze on their skin. They are overwhelmed, and feel afraid at the strength of experience, the unboundedness. They have always lived in the confines of their boxes on the train, and hardly had any space to move and be free. Spontaneously, people start dancing. They feel like they can remember a time where they would move their bodies and celebrate and commune and be together in these new and ancient ways. There is a fascination at the plants that seem to grow directly from the ground. They always knew that plants and tomatoes and spinach came from the ground… But somehow they had never witnessed the alchemy. And that’s what it is, alchemy… The people realise that they have been colonised and oppressed for so long. The people in power have also felt shut down, crammed, oppressed, squeezed, stiff — and they start to come undone… In their clothes, their shirts become untucked, heavy jewellery gets cast off.

—

Their heavy, weary faces start to relax. People look younger again, and have the sun on their faces. They realise that this was the gift they were given, the world and the soil and the fresh air and breeze, it’s all free, it’s all there, it’s all up for sensing and feeling and experiencing — and that’s when someone shouts out. “SEND THE TRAIN OVER THE EDGE!!!” And the crowd starts chanting “over the edge! over the edge!” The final people are evacuated from the train, and the people who have been sitting in council for days and days finally decide to do the impossible, the courageous, the only thing there was to do in this moment. The conductors take the keys to the front, and restart the train. This time, no-one is on it. The train lurches and grumbles and a huge screeching sound sends the train in momentum forward, swaying from side to side, great clouds of black smoke and pollution and chemicals fill the air.. The people are dizzy with confusion, with shock, and with the smell that reminds them of how they used to live.

—

10 years after the train broke down, the passengers on the train gathered back to commemorate the place where the brakes were discovered and the train was stopped.
There are now many trains, and carriages are free to connect and go where they wish, with passengers and staff freely moving between them too.
Solar powered trams weave their way noiselessly through the birds and the flourishing gardens and forests, the vibrancy of the ecotones where order senses into imagined realms of natural beauty and wonder are treasured by all.

—

The healers, mystics, seers and shamans step forward. They step forward without the shame previously experienced by them when they show themselves. Now is their time.
“We know what might be the right thing to do here”
They speak with such gentle power that many of the survivors listen. A few are combative, but are soothed by other survivors.
A Council is created. The Four Directions are elected, and take their places. Everyone is able to speak in turn, using the Talking Stick.
Millennia of experience pulse through the people. Animals creep in round the edges, the trees bend to listen, the stream flows quieter.
With an Invocation to the Highest Power.
the Council begins …

—

The children sat atop a cantilevered rock at the cliff’s edge and would call into the chasm listening for their echoes. when they’d tire of these conversations, they’d lie back and watch the sky and one noticed birds flying back and forth between the land and the chasm. the birds would zip and zoom over land, but as they entered the space of no reference, they’d slow and glide and let their bodies be taken on the drafts of wind before dipping a wing and turning back to zip and dive for insects popping above the grasses. allegro for hunger, legato for wonder. perhaps the chasm isn’t a crisis, but the portal into allowing new reference points, surrendering to flow.

—

it was the children who drew attention to the fact that playtime was needed. finally, since all the weird work stopped, the parents had time to play. and so they started playgrounds next to the train. they took turns in fighting the fire and started building community gardens next to the train. over the days and months and years that followed they started living, though close to the abyss, but living. moss grew over the train and the course of the train and one day they dared to take a walk to the cliff edge and looked down. holy shit, they mumbled, what a blessing that fire started… and they returned to their community gardens and played on with the kids while the birds were chirping.

—

With everybody in pain, will we argue about whose pain will be allowed to be felt? With the cliff in our sight how much time will we spend on how angry we are at others or ourselves who ignored the cliff? What will the conversation be like? How can we balance accountability and forgiveness?

—

What will we sacrifice to build a better future? …people realized that whatever they gave up together was no sacrifice. Sacrifice only existed when everyone thought of themselves as separate from everyone else. The people operating the train knew this, and that’s why they made sure everyone remained as separate as possible, stuck in their own seat. But outside of the burning train people can rediscover the interconnectedness, the interdependence. And all the walls, all the separations, all the borders blur away.

—

The people started to move out of the train. Away from the fire. They took off their shoes. And for the first time they felt the soft green grass underneath their feet. They laid down. Resting their bodies on the earth. They stayed still. For a long time. Step by step they found the way to move. Keeping the feeling of the earth underneath their feet. Moving slowly to the ledge. they moved together. Until they reached the end. Holding hands they looked down.

—

Who do we choose to be? The question lingered in the air as the smoke and ashes from the fire had done earlier. The time to think was given but its extension was not disclosed. A sense of urge and imminency in friction with the renewed atmosphere of stillness. The trees were waiting. They had been there for centuries, patient, immutable yet highly communicative amidst each other. The rivers, the seas, the waters of the world kept flowing, some gingerly, some impetuously, seemingly careless of the human conundrum yet perhaps careful, cautious of the implications this new wave of manmade decision might have once again on their streams. The clarity was already disappearing. But there was hope. And within that hope, there lingered a promise of freedom.

—

As the evening drew late and the darkness crept at the edges of the firelight, squirrels and rabbits, deer, and field mice, birds and animals of every kind started gathering around the fires too. The children marvelled and the adults quieted their discussions for a moment, sensing into the eternal harmony of conscious awareness. They would build new paths to take people back to nature, children in their wonder would lead the way, and the adults continued telling their stories, woven around the nature and the wonder.

—

there was an opening, a condition for re-invention, like a wormhole in the universe to access a different dimension. But it took tending, it took care, it took the choice to be intentional in that space of possibilities together to re-imagine what path we chose to walk in

—

Traumatised by the train coming to a standstill, forces of banal lack of imagination restarted it, improving the engines through electrification so it could continue its journey moving towards hyper-normal compared with the normal of years past…… forces for creative imagination of a far better future for all applied makeshift brakes and slowed the train but are unable to stop it, the wrestle between the forces becomes and eternal struggle, like the toll of a great brass bell going on for eternity!

—

The passengers went to look into the deep, deep cavern. Why were the tracks laid to take the train straight off the edge? The ‘authorities’ that had been driving the train on and on and were so keen to get it going again had lost all authority. The train company, though they claimed they could lay new tracks that went around the chasm, could no longer find passengers for their train. People joined into small groups and started their campfires, telling stories to each other about the different kinds of journeys they would like to take.“It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”