Once upon a time, the World of Oceania consisted of five lands of talking animals: Westa, Easta, Afri, Lati, and Ameri. Each land prided itself on its variety of morel mushrooms. And each land was led by a pig.
Many of Westa, Easta, Afri and Lati’s leaders were sophisticated and kind but also brave and wise.
Westa’s President Wilbur radiantly and humbly led his people to terrific levels of morel production. He was some president.
Easta’s President Brickhouse modernized morel location methods, built enhanced sorting facilities, and made Easta’s quality control a model of industriousness.
Afri’s President Pumbaa had been imprisoned for many years by the Napoleonic animal farm, but he eventually was liberated, and his patience and compassion were extended even to those who had treated him so cruelly.
Lati’s President Mizpeeghee was highly educated in matters related to morel development, and she bravely stood up to Dictator Ebenezer Carol’s exploitation of the workers and suppression of freedom.
Ameri’s leader, President Chungus, was feral and boorish and blind and had no morel compass.
People from around the World of Oceania had once been in awe of the bounty of Ameri, its culture, and its variety. But President Chungus had lured the masses with the possibility of expressing their own boorish nature without the hassle of self-control— despite professing they were followers of The Lamb of Self Control. Thus, the reputation of the Land of Ameri turned from admired to reviled.
Yet, fearing negative impacts on their lands, some of the leaders of other lands played upon President Chungus’ porky ego to deftly protect their citizens from his known pattern of morel sabotage.
Each year in the World of Oceania, an international committee gave the Morel Prize to a person who exhibited the traits of superior morel development, in both quantity and quality.
Compassless President Chungus spent most of his life not reconciling problems in morel location and distribution, but boasting about taking retribution against those who opposed his methods. Covered in slop, he habitually spewed insults at others’ appearance and physical challenges.
But one year, blind President Chungus, while looking for an acorn, stumbled upon what some declared one of the finest morels ever found. Replicating this morel accomplishment stood to greatly benefit President Chungus’ business interests, but it would also allow the land where the morel was found to stop being overrun by bulldozers.
The Morel Prize committee, however, decided to focus not on the finding of one great morel but on a pattern of promoting a far-reaching and overarching means of morel development. Thus, they granted the prize to President Mizpeeghee, who had put her life at risk in pursuit of superior morel development. Upon accepting the Morel Prize, she said she accepted the recognition as an individual representing all those of her land dedicated to just morel development.
Meanwhile, President Chungus declared that he was being discriminated against because of his overall low morel development. He ordered that morel development in his own country be shut down and that existing supplies of morels be impounded so that his one great morel accomplishment would be even more valued.
Still, many people continued to wonder about the status of the investigation of his alleged involvement in exploiting underage lambs at the Geoffrey Upstein Fungus Farm.
The End…eavor
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Christian D. Senter grew up on a small planet in the Milky Way. As a child, Christian enjoyed suckling the nurturing food of stories from the scriptures of his home planet. As a young-adult Christian, for a while, became enamored with the fatty food of religious power plays. After several hurtful experiences with people of his same faith tradition and nationality, Christian sought a more substantive spiritual connection with the creator of all galaxies.
