A while ago in a country not so far away, a girl lived happily with her family. Sometimes Veri went to work with her father, or she might stay home and help her mother. Veri might spend her day playing with friends or watching dragonflies by the stream. Lots of times Veri sat on the porch in the evening with her mom and dad and cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles.
The people in Veri’s country said what they thought and meant what they said. This was very important to the people because knowledge and trust and truth made their lives better. They could trade things and know that the other person would keep their end of the deal. This was neat, folks could work at things they were good at, then trade with others for things that they hadn’t worked on. There were farmers and storekeepers and teachers and doctors and artists and thinkers. Life was good, most of the time.
Sometimes when you say what you think, you don’t always get it right the first time; but, you have to start somewhere. Not very often, but sometimes there were misunderstandings, hurt feelings, embarrassment, arguments, and even fights. The thinkers tried to figure out a way to avoid these disagreements.
One thinker, Carl, decided that there wouldn’t be any more problems if there were tellers to tell people how to do things. In fact it would be neat if tellers told people when, where, what, and why to do everything. As long as the tellers agreed with each other there wouldn’t be any more problems. Carl decided to take his great idea to the emperor.
The Emperor at the time was younger than most. (Usually it was older people who took turns being Emperor. When they were older and couldn’t work as hard, and if they were wise, and if they were nice; they would be asked to be emperor for a few years.) The Emperor loved Carl’s idea. He and Carl decided that in order to do a really good job the country needed lots and lots of tellers. They decided that the Emperor would be the Teller in Chief. Soon they had lots and lots of tellers. They told the farmers how to farm, the storekeepers what to sell, they told the teachers how to teach, doctors how to heal, artists what to draw, and they told the thinkers how to think. Life was good we were told.
There were so many tellers that there weren’t as many farmers, and storekeepers, and teachers, and doctors, and artists, and thinkers to do all the work that had to be done. The work took longer still when they had to do it the way the tellers wanted them to do it. There were lots of misunderstandings, hurt feelings, embarrassment, arguments, and fights.
Veri didn’t get to spend hardly any time on the porch with her mom and dad and cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles anymore. Veri thought that having all of these people being tellers instead of doers wasn’t a very good idea. Folks didn’t say what they mean or mean what they said. Folks said what they thought they were supposed to say. Besides, what do you get when you trade with a teller anyway? Veri decided to go and tell the Emperor what she thought.
The Emperor was in a meeting with the top tellers, even Carl the thinker was there. Veri told them all what she thought about how so many people being tellers instead of doers wasn’t a very good idea.
Carl laughed and then explained to little Veri, “We need tellers to stop people from fighting. People need to know when, where, what, and why to do things so that they won’t have to fight with each other. In fact there have been so many fights lately that we need even more tellers. Do you understand little girl?”
Veri said that she disagreed. Veri said, “Maybe if there were more people doing the work, they could get done sooner. If they got done sooner, they could discuss their disagreements on the porch instead of fighting.”
The Emperor stood to speak, “I like very much being the Teller in Chief; however, the things this little girl has said sounds like the truth to me. I have a new idea that will fix this problem. We will build a monument to demonstrate the value we place on truth. Have the people assemble on the hill by the great cliff over the harbor this Sunday afternoon at three o’clock .”
Sunday afternoon came and the people had built a beautiful, tall and slender monument at the top of the cliff where it could be seen for miles around. It had the word truth engraved down the side. 200 feet up at the top was a chair and they put Veri in it. All the people were there. The farmers and storekeepers and teachers and doctors and artists and thinkers and tellers were there. Veri’s friends and mom and dad and cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles were there.
The Emperor asked everyone to place their hand against the Monument to Truth. With all the excitement it took a little while, but soon as many as possible were touching Veri’s throne.
Then the Emperor said, “Push”. Over went Veri and by 3:30 everyone was back at their assigned tasks.
Minutes respectfully submitted by the Coffee Committee, Lottery Subcommittee 1998