Monday, September 04, 2006

Wrong Number!!!


For some reason my home phone number is listed as a book publisher's phone number. So, on a daily basis, countless phone calls come through. My answering machine now says "this is a private home" - and still they keep ringing. I usually let it go straight to the answering machine, but last Tuesday I was working from home and waiting for a phone call from a colleague so, when the phone rang... A lady called looking for the publishers. I explained that this is a private home number etc. Hung up politely etc. She called again. Again the same story. She apologised.
Again, five minutes later, she called. This time to see if I had their phone number. No, madam, I have no idea. Then, about 10 minutes later the phone rings and sure enough it's the same the lady again. I didn't know what to say anymore. She wanted to check if the publisher's phone was merely being incorrectly directed to my home. So we double-checked the number she had and it was indeed my home number. No, sorry, wrong number. She asked me how long I have had that number. "About six months" -- I replied. She said she had just written a book and was trying to arrange a meeting with the publishers. Then I became curious. "What was the book about?" It was a work of fiction about a girl who finds out she is not human. "Hummmm" I said, not really interested anymore. Until she said "She realises she is made of goodness." I asked "Well, aren't humans good?". Diane said (by then I had asked her her name) "We used to be. Now we have become greedy and selfish and lost our original goodness -- we need to find our super-human selves again. This girl in the book finds it straight away. It is the innocence that children have" she said which allows them to tap into what is best in them immediately." So we chatted a bit longer I wished her good luck and hung up.

That story stuck to my mind... it was interesting to see my own beliefs about the human race, and I was happy to find that 'my ending' was a happy one. That we indeed have the potential to become like children again; to rediscover our goodness, to reaccess our innocence and to live in harmony. Yes, despite the wars, the chaos and the negativity. Indeed, there is no other way. So, when the phone rang again I was hoping it was Diane so I could tell her my reflections as a follow-up to our chat, but it wasn't... It was my colleague from work with a very technical question. I was a different person though, with a different state of mind, no longer 'small'. I had hope for us, for all of us.

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