Chapter 6.

Can't See the Tree

For the Woods

    As Alix was wondering what will happen next, he heard a small voice speaking apparently to him. He looked all around, but he could see nobody.  All that he could see before him was a large flower bed with an explosion of red, white and blue flowers in it and a weeping willow right in the middle of it."

    "Oh pure white Tiger Lily," said Alix addressing himself to a delicate flower waving about loosely in the wind, which seemed weakly rooted in the hard ground of the flower bed, "I wish that you could talk or at least burst forth glorious sounds from your wondrous trumpet."

    "We can talk, "said the Tiger Lily, "When there is anybody worth talking too."

    (Possibly there were microphones and speakers in the flowers.  -- S. C.)

    Alix, astonished, asked, rather timidly "Can all flowers talk?"

    "As well as you can," said the Tiger Lily, "and a great deal louder."

    "Well, if I had a trumpet like yours, then I could indeed speak very loud."

    "But do you have anything good to say?" said the red Rose," and I really was wondering when you'd speak!  Said I to myself, 'His face has got some sense in it, though it's not a clever one!'"

    "Don't be rude, Rose," said the Tiger Lily, "First, how do you know how much he would speak if he was in his proper environment: it could be a lot. Second, how can you tell somebody is clever by their looks?  If you want to evaluate by the eyes, then I see that he has fiery eyes that bespeaks of much intelligence, penetration and determination."

    "Thanks," Alix gratefully replied for finally getting some positive feedback.

    "Still," exhaled the Rose, "you wear the right colors -- red, white and blue -- and that goes a long way."

    "And why are those the right colors?'" asked Alix, who seemed to already know the answer, but simply wanted to hear it from the flowers.

   And each flower in turn in made a short, but incisive speech.

   "Well," the Tiger Lily started, "lily-white stands for purity and Pure Being that is the good in all men, the image of God, that was placed in them at the time of divine creation; that is why the authority of the government, after coming directly from God, should come indirectly, through man's divine wisdom, from all these good men."

    "And, "continued the Violet, "violet-blue stands for the sky and the sky is the limit in this great land where all men have the freedom and the holy Will to be as enterprising as they like, in short, to cultivate their God-given talents."

    "And finally," added Rose, "rose-red stands for all the blood and sacrifices that all these good men shed in order to create this great..."

    Then they said in unison, "...Nation, under one Flag, under one God: Freedom, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness and man's true end for all." And at that the Tiger Lily ended this Trinity of speeches with a loud triumphant trumpet call.

    Alix clapped for these wonderful speeches. Then, in concern for his new friends, he asked them, "Aren't you sometimes frightened at being planted out here, with nobody to care for you?"

   "Yes," said the Tiger Lily, "for we're very delicate. This Green Willow of Prosperity--which flourished here in the first place because of the nutrients we ourselves deposited into the ground here--is our ostensible protector, but he has become a little weepy and distracted lately.  In addition a weedy little bush, transplanted here as a grafting onto the Willow Tree, has so usurped all the good earth and nutrients here that it is slowly constricting and killing the Willow day by day."

    "Then how can you survive?"

    "We must be transplanted, over yonder, under that large Liberty Tree.  You see it at the top of that hill?"

   "Yes, I see it?"

    "Will you do us a favor and ask it if it will allow us to be replanted under it."

    "Yes, I will, but then who will replant you."

    "Just do the talking, that is your forte; then all of the people some of the time, or some of people all of the time, or better yet all of the people all of the time, will take care of the replanting."

    So Alix agreed to the mission and after saying his farewells, headed in the direction of the Liberty Tree, but every time he tried going up that hill he ended right back at the flower bed.  He tried several more times, but every time he ended back at the flower bed.

   The Tiger Lily declared, "You can't get to the Liberty Tree by trying to get there directly, for if you continually do, you will end up in the complete opposite place, as some in this land have already tried; you can't force liberty, that's a contradiction in terms. You must go there in a sideways and a roundabout fashion."

    "But how can I do that?"

    "Beats me. Who do you think we are?  Why, we are only flowers.  However, if you keep onto the paths around here, I'm sure you will--if you have the right attitude--finally come to it."

   "Well, I will do what you say."

   And after Alix once again made his farewells to the flowers, he trotted off down one of the many twisty and curvy paths about this land and went in the opposite direction of the Liberty tree.

    By doing this, he soon came, it seemed, to the bottom of the hill he had been so long aiming at.  However, the Liberty Tree at the top had a strange, off-center look to it that Alix couldn't place his finger on just yet. Yes, now he knew: it had few leaves on it and the few on it seemed dying.  Did a north wind usher in so quickly in this apparently southern clime that he didn't notice its coming; perhaps, for this was a strange, odd land he was wandering about in?

    Just at that time he found himself face to face with a rather large living chess piece, all painted red, which Alix later found out called himself the Red King.  (As Alix later found out, this King was the ruler over a land far from where Alix originally started out, but it seemed that our own White King in our own land was starting to speak a lot like him.)

   "Where do you come from?" said the Red King. "And where are you going?  Do you have an identity papers on you?"
    "No, I don't think so."

    "Then how can you ever tell who you are if you don't have any?"

    "I know very well who I am?"

     "We can debate that point later on, but for now it is more important for me to know who you are."

    "Why is that?  Socrates said to 'Know Thyself ' and not to 'Know thy brother' "

    "And who is this Socrates fellow?  Does he have any papers?  He must be some kind of subversive.  Perhaps, it is a good thing if we have off with his head."

    "Oh, he is already dead."

    "Good, we don't want any more of these dangerous subversives around here. So, what are you doing in my domain?"

    "I lost my way."

    "I don't know what you mean by your way, all they ways here belong to me. But why did you come here at all?"

    "I only wanted to see the tree."

    "That's good," said the Red King, patting him on his head, which Alix didn't like at all.

    "So can I see the tree?"

    "Oh yes. It is good to want to see the Unliberty Tree."

    "The Unliberty Tree! But I wanted to see the Liberty tree."

   "They are the same thing."

   "They are!"

   "Yes, you are now seeing the Liberty Tree from its other side and its other side is the Unliberty Tree."

    "I don't quite understand."

    "Well, you see for everything there is its opposite: all have one; it is the inevitable nature of things.  For every action there is a reaction.  For all things hot there are things cold.  For all things good, there must be things bad; and far all things free, there must be things unfree."

    "I don't quite believe all things have to have an opposite, or at least that its opposite is inevitable or good for society."

    "Don't get hung up on the good and the bad; all things have their opposites. For every positive thing, for its thesis if you will, there is its opposite, its anti-thesis. And these two opposites must unite, or better yet, transcend these two opposites until we get a new thesis.   That is, one has the thesis, freedom, opposed to its anti-thesis, unfreedom, and these two must eventually merge to make the 'free unfreedom' or the 'unfree freedom.'  That is how reality is."

    "I don't quite think so.  Give me some examples."

    "For example, if someone is free to walk around naked, then others are not free to walk down a street not seeing naked people.  Or if one is free to own a gun, others are not free from one's possible shooting of it at them.  Again, if one is free to own property, then others are not free to own that same property.  In short, for every freedom there is an equal and opposite unfreedom.  Slavery and restrictions must always exist with freedom and therefore we get the 'Unfree freedom.'"

    "You are confusing me. Let me think.  Perhaps those examples are true; I will concede the point, though some are a little contrived.  However, every freedom does not automatically create an unfreedom.  For example, the freedom to be enterprising with one's talent and resources enables others to be free and enterprising with their own talents and resources.  It's not that we must all share the same small pie, but that all may share a piece of an ever increasing pie. That's what makes my land so great and prosperous. At least in the past it was."

    "But the increasing of that pie is only possible by many people denying present freedoms for future freedoms--or in other words reaping the fruit of unfreedoms--and once the pie is made not everybody is free to get an equal share, but are limited, or unfree, in what they get, and finally, there will come a time when the pie can not get any bigger: then surely someone's freedom at getting one piece of pie denies, or unfrees, others that same piece of pie."

    "Well, I am not sure that there are so many limits to growth as is touted about, but economic considerations are not the most important. The most important one is the freedom to live life the way one wants to, to be allowed to direct oneself to his own final end, and to worship the Divine in the way a person really believes is the right way."

     "Is one really free to live one's life?  Even if he's free from all state restrictions, he can only live it in the way that the many inevitable causes have shaped him to live it.  And in religion, he can only worship in the way reality is configured: that is, not as he believes, but as things are."

    "You are almost saying that man can't get away from being totally unfree?"

    "Yes, and, if man is already totally unfree by being trapped in inevitable circumstances, why can't the state come in and make it a little more comfortable and worthwhile by simply adding a few more unfreedoms to one's already total unfreedom which naturally as you can see doesn't change one's status as totally unfree one wee bit.  That, in a small and confining nutshell, is the philosophy of the Unliberty Tree."

    "I can't answer you at the moment.  There is something wrong with your so tight and coiling logic, but I know the Creator says that I am free and I darn well will exercise that freedom.  I may be trapped, to a certain extent, in my own web of causes and circumstances, but I will not let it be more restricted and deadened by an unfeeling and cold, if not sadistic, state."

    "Well, believe as you like, reality will still be the same."

    "I don't think you'll allow us to even believe what we like, to even have free minds."

    "Your minds are already unfree.  Well, look!  We are at the top of the hill.  Look below. What do you see?"

     Alix looked in wonder at what he saw. The whole land was crisscrossed with brooks and hedges and little fields that made the whole thing look like a giant chess board.

    Alix remarked, "It's a huge game of chess that is being played all over the world. Oh, what fun! I wouldn't mind being a Pawn to start out, but I should like to be a King."

    "Well, Alix, you should be happy, for you're already a pawn in this giant chess game that is the world."

    "I am," said Alix a little perplexed and starting to get a little uneasy about this giant chess game.

    "And you will certainly become a King.  Many do. All are created to be kings, but some are created to be more kingly than others."

    Alix was starting to get the idea and it certainly seemed a little similar to all those students back in public school getting the same number of stars.  "How will I start this game?"

     "You start be being the White King's pawn."

     "I should have known."

     Just as that moment, somehow or other, they began to run.  He was holding the King's hand and the King kept yelling, "Faster, faster." The most curious thing was that the trees and other things round them never changed their places at all; however fast they went, they never seemed to pass anything.

    "Are we nearly there?" Alix managed to pant out at last.

    "Nearly there?" the Red King repeated. "Why, we reached our destination ten minutes ago! Faster now!" And just as Alix was getting quite exhausted, they stopped, and he found himself sitting on the ground, breathless and giddy. Then Alix said, "Why, I do believe we've been under this Unliberty Tree the whole time!  Everything is just as it was."

    "Of course it is," said the King, "How would you have it." 

    "Well, in our world," said Alix, "You'd generally get somewhere else if you ran very fast for a long time."

    "Now, here, it takes all the running you can do to stay in the same place."

    "Well," said Alix more to himself, "that sounds like a typical red country to me, which, in fact, our own country was turning into quite quick.  Indeed, I saw some workers painting the white flowers red the other day.  I certainly did." And that made Alix ask the Red King, "Why is your country only red. Where are your other colors?"

    "Why, Red is the best color.  Don't people really prefer continual bloody struggle and self-sacrifice?" And as the Red King continued with his speech, a telescope instantly appeared before Alix and he reflexively bent down to take a look in it and there he saw this awful vision: many simple folk, soldiers, and churchman in a small town were slipping and sliding and struggling in a rich gooey gloop, much like our the green gloop, but all in an binding, sickly red color. 

     The Red King continued, "people aren't really so satisfied with those temporary and fleeting luxuries and pleasures, but deep down what they really want is hard struggle and enveloping mission, a sense of hot, vital, identity, which we give to them, for nothing could be grander than working for the good of a greater and more glorious entity, which in fact is the State. It is the essence of your Judeo-Christian ethic, but we give the pie in the sky now rather than later."

    "So the State is God now?"

    "Now," said the King in a most authoritative tone, "it is time for you to begin playing the game of chess. It is no use me giving you directions, for the whole game is already planned and laid out before you even begin; the end is inevitable. You simply have to enter the board and all the moves will be taken care for you.  You don't have to think at all, so have a good time," and with that the Red King pushed Alix toward the first square and the Red King seemed to have suddenly disappeared.  In addition to this strange phenomenon, other things occurred that could have possibly explained this disappearance: 1) as he was pushed toward the Red Square he felt some material passed by him as if he was pushed through some sort of hole and 2) on the other side, if Alix squinted hard, he swore he could see part of the landscape shimmer as if it was all a film projected unto a 3-D film screen.  Was some sort of holographic virtual reality working here; perhaps at some primitive level that was, of course, not nearly as advanced as on Star Trek.

    Alix found himself suddenly standing in a bell tower looking out a large window unto a vast red landscape. Sitting quietly beside him was a gnat balancing itself on the edge of the window sill and fanning him with its wings.  It certainly was a very large gnat. About the size of a child. 

    Alix wasn't scared, for he had already seen many large things, for he was from the state of the large things, Texas.   However, he was curious as to why the Gnat was so large so he asked it, "Dear very large Gnat, why are so very large?"

   "Well, Alix, "said the gnat who seemed to know Alix," I was tired of all the bad press that little gnats were getting so I decided to grow bigger."

   "What bad press?"

   "The bad press in the Bible. I'm saying nothing against our Lord, for he had to make his point about the Pharisees, but since then some people have taking it to blame us for all the defects of the Pharisees."

   "Oh ya, I remember a quote about gnats in the Bible, but I can't quite remember it. How does it go?"

    The Gnat replied by giving the quote,

"'Blind guides. Who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel. ' " ¹

    "Oh ya. And what is its context?"

    "Its context is this:

'Woe to you scribes and Pharisees. Hypocrites; because you tithe mint, and anise, and cumin, and have left the weightier things of the law; judgment and mercy and faith. These things you ought to have done, and not to leave undone. Blind guides. Who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel.' " ²

    "Good words holding many good ideas.  Yes, I know many One Worlders who are more interested in Trade than in the weightier things of the Law."

    "Yes, they strain out the gnats in the Constitution for their own good."

   "Wait!  Are you saying that it's bad to pay too close attention to the details and words of the Constitution rather than to its spirit and intent?  Well, a literal interpretation of the Constitution is my position and I thought it was a good one."

    "Yes, paying close attention to the words of the Constitution is good to an extent, but we must find a balance in all things and avoid the incorrect extremes at either end: 1) either being too broadminded and only looking at the intent and the spirit of the framers or of the times; or 2) being too exact with the words and never looking at its intent and spirit, for Mr. Loremouse was right when he said that the framers did distil into the Constitution much wisdom from the Natural Law, this Natural Law that was deep in them and that was the source of all the good laws of man. The Constitution is a masterpiece of distilled spirit in the form of mighty words."

   "Yes, some judges will disastrously combine both incorrect extremes by straining a gnat in the Constitution while adding their own intent or the spirit of the times to get something entirely different to what the words of the Constitution was really trying to mean in its original intent and spirit.  This resulted in some incorrect decisions like the ones to allow abortion and pornography.  Whether you are for or against these issues is not the point; the point is that the Constitution does not speak to these issues in any way and that they should have been, and should be, resolved at the legislative level.  Yes, they strained gnats to make us swallow camels."

   "Yes, what an abuse of the Constitution."

   "Yes, isn't it so.  Hey, look there! It starting to rain red gloop.  And look! Those are sure funny looking insects buzzing about the Unliberty Tree.  What is that one?"

    "That one there is a BreadandCircusMite.  It goes around distributing bread and putting on circuses during an election to keep people from paying too much attention to the issues."

   "Shame on it. And that one in the air?"

   "That's a Telebug," The gnat explained, "Thousands of these bugs listen in on telephone conversations and then they fly over to the Red King's court to tell him all about it: this is done through the Red King's tele-buzz-collator-snoopo-contemplator-meter which collates and tallies up all the information before it gets to the King. "

   The Gnat continued, "This machine is run by the Snoopicitor-general, a close aide to the Red King. I hear there has been rather a large infestation of these bugs lately; there are so many that they're looking for work with the White King and I hear that he's hiring them and that the White King had even bought a collator-machine."

   "Nasty, I hate those little spies. And that one climbing up the tower. Oh, dear me?"

   "That is the BusybodySpider.  It likes to flit about from place to place, apparently trying to be helpful, but gets into everybodies' way, tying things up and adding to their expenses and frustrations. I hear many are working for the both the Red and the White King."

   "Yes, the government is so full of them costing so much waste and trouble.  Well, let’s stroll over to the other side of the Unliberty Tree to its Liberty side."

   "O, I see that you have been talking to the Red King.  He lies a lot.  The Unliberty Tree has nothing at all to do with the Liberty Tree.  They are separate and both lie in there own square. Here, hop down from this bell tower and we shall visit the real Liberty Tree."

   So they hopped through the window and in an instant the whole environment changed as if they traveled many a mile and now before them, in the far distance, was the Liberty Tree.  The air was now very pure and clean and Alix could see for a far distance.

    "Oh, now this sure is the Liberty tree and I see that it has its own insects buzzing about and I think I see the Constitution flitting about making sure all's in order.  What's that insect?"

    "That's the LibertyBug.  It flies about your ear singing merry free songs that you don't hear but that are taken in by your subconscious and soon you can't get those liberty tunes out of your head and will take no guff when someone wants to restrict your liberties."

    "I like that one. I think I have one flying about my ear all the time.  And that one?"

   "That is a cousin of the LibertyBug and is called the LadyBug or The Goddess of Liberty.  It sings songs in ears like its cousin, but it inspires men to do big things like build big statues or sail halfway across the world to find freedom."

    "I know her. And that one?"

    "That is the DueProcessWasp."

    The Gnat continued, "It's a busy insect and has many brothers and sisters helping him accomplish a variety of tasks that make sure the judicial system based on the Constitution works properly.  Some of its many tasks include creating the proper paper for due process and stinging judges who shirk their duty.  Its kind is still abundant in the center of the land, but a strange disease has been killing them in the land's periphery."

    "Yes, this disease seems to be heading for the center now!"

    "It always seems to happen."

    "Not if I have anything to do about it," exclaimed Alix.

    "Exactly what can you do?"

    After this Alix was quiet for a minute or two wondering. The Gnat amused itself meanwhile by buzzing round his head; at last it sat down again and said," I suppose you don't want to lose your name?"

    "No, indeed," Alix.

    "Only think how useful if would be.  For instance, if the government wanted to call you for any service, in the army, or in a detention center for example, it would call out "Come here--' and there it would have to leave off, because there wouldn't be any name for it to call, and of course you wouldn't have to go, you know."

    "That would never do," said Alix, "the government would never think of excusing me for that.  If it didn't know my name, it would call me 'Number so and so' as those mean men in black did a while back."

     Then the Gnat started to make melancholy sighs and continued so long at it that it sighed itself away, for when Alix looked up there was nothing whatever to be seen beside him and as the sun was setting and he was getting quite cold he got up and walked on.

    He thought it high time he asked the Liberty Tree if the Red, White and Blue flowers and the Green Willow of Prosperity could be planted under it, but when he looked up the tree was gone, to be replaced by a dark wood. 

     "Now," thought Alix, "where did the Liberty Tree go; it didn't just get up and walk. Maybe it can, for what can be freer than the Liberty Tree. Well, I can't find it by looking for it, so I will try by getting very lost.  This wood looks like a very good place to get lost in, so I will go into it."

      He went a little further and just at the entrance to the woods was a wooden sign, 'This is the wood with no names, please take a number,' and under the sign was one of those ticket dispensers you see in places like a butcher's shop.  Alix thought rather indignantly, "I am no piece of meat; I'll take no number." and walked on.  As he walked on a bit, he turned around to look at the sign but now there were no words on the sign; they had all disappeared.  "I suppose," joked Alix rather morosely, "that it is now the wood-en sign with no names. Ha."

    Now it got quite dark in the wood and it was filled with a strange smelling mist that seemed to have clogged up Alix's mind.  "Well, it is quite cool and shady here," he said as he stepped further into the woods, "here in the--in the--in this what?" he went on a little perplexed at not being able to think of the word. "What does it call itself, I wonder? I do believe it's got no name. And who am I? I will remember, if I can!  I'm determined to do it!"  But being determined didn't help him much.  "Perhaps the Red--the Red--Whoever was right when he said that I should carry identity papers to know who I was. Perhaps I should have taken that ticket from the what--the what--at the start of the what? Oh, I am so confused...Ah, here's a card in my pocket...It has words on them.  One word is 'Amigos.' That sounds familiar. I know the word, but I don't know its meaning.  Boy, words seem so useless without their meanings, don't you know. "

     Just then a small chess piece that most certainly was a Pawn came wandering by;  it looked at Alix with its large, wooden eyes, but it didn't seem at all to be frightened, or anything else for that matter, for it--Alix couldn't tell if it was male or female--didn't have much expression on its face at all. "Here then! Here then!" Alix said as he held out his hand for it to shake it; but it only started back a little, and then stood looking at him.

    Looking at its ticket it said, "I am number 6; what number are you?" the pawn said at last. Such a robotic, monotone voice it had!

     "I don't have one!" thought poor Alix. He answered, rather sadly. "None, just now."

    "Look again at your ticket," it said; "having no number just won't do here."

   "I don't have a ticket."

   At that the pawn looked at Alix with wild, scared eyes and said, "No Ticket! That won't do! That won't do!"

  Then Alix saw that the Pawn was looking all around rather apprehensively and just at that time Alix thought he heard the squeal of a pig, or the squeal of many pigs. "What is that?" Alix exclaimed.

   "Those are the ticket checkers and I heard that if you don't have your ticket they will do awful things to you."

   "Where did you hear that?"

   "In pawn school."

   "I could believe that you learned that in school, but you mustn't believe that their way is the right way. We must battle them continuously and the first thing to do is to shout out your name. Come on. We don't need numbers. We all have names. I have one but...but... I can't quite remember it now.  What's your name?"

    "My name! My name! I don't think I have a name. Well one time some giant held my head and another giant called out in my direction  'Areyousureyouwanttomovethere.'  So I think that that's my name. But I'm not sure."

    "Well  'Areyousureyouwanttomovethere,' I think if we get out of this wood then you are sure to remember if that is your real name or not"

    "Out of this wood!  Out of this wood! I've never been out of this wood.  None of my friends have been out either: we just move about in this wood for a time and then we just eventually vanish.   No, that is not entirely correct; one of my friends said he saw one get out, but my friend said that once out it turned into a Queen, so I don't put much faith in his stories. No, we just wander around in here for a while and then we just disappear."

    "There must be more to it than that. I believe there is a place beyond this place, but I can't quite remember anything about it, but I know it's there."

    "I don't believe it. Once you start thinking so, then you get ideas and then you'll be dissatisfied with your lot. No pie in the sky for me. They taught me that in pawn school."

   "But there is pie in the sky," said Alix pointing into distance while putting a comforting arm around the Pawn's shoulder, "Look there, in the distance.  There. I see a bright patch of blue! That must be the pie in the sky. Come, let's go."

   "That's only a trick or an illusion.  It can only lead to a very dangerous place or to nothing at all.  I was taught that in pawn school."

    "No, at least I don't think so. There is more to this world than this dreary place."

   "Go if you like, but I am staying here until I am moved by the invisible giant hands; we can do nothing about it, but let these giant, invisible forces have our way with us."

   "That can't be right," but Alix saw that the pawn was set in its ways and so he trotted off to that patch of blue sky until he was out of the dark woods.  "Well, now I know my name and it's Alix, Alix Jones. I won't forget it again! Never!"

    And at that, Alix saw that he was back at Uncle Sam's house again.  And this made Alix think, "I think I have finally graduated from college. I almost didn't make it there and I thought I could have lost my mind many a time, but here I'm back where I started off, no nearer the Liberty Tree than I was when I started looking for it. Or am I? 

    Well, what now?  I guess the best way to learn about the Liberty Tree and the Constitution is to ask people about it.  Yes, that is what I'll do.  Well, I have my name back and now I have a job to do. 

BACK

Footnotes:

1. Matthew 23:24,  The Douay-Rheims The Holy Bible, revised by Bishop Calloner (1749-1752)  Published by TAN BOOKS AND PUBLISHERS, INC, Rockford Illinois 61105, 1971, reprinted 1989, 2000.

2. Ibid., Matthew 23:23-24.