So this monkey moved far away, to a forest that looked a lot like the forest where it used to live.
This monkey brought with it a delicious fruit from its old forest, to share with Other Monkeys. As part of the settlement for its forest being burned down, the monkey was given a whole case of banappelopes! So the monkey wouldn't need to worry about finding a job in the forest it was moving to, as it would have plenty of food for the first while at least.
Unfortunately none of this monkey's friends or family wanted to come along to this new forest; they all got jobs working for the company that cleared the forest where it came from.
For the rest of the story, let's call this monkey the New Monkey.
The New Monkey was super excited when it arrived at its awesome new forest.
"Wow" thought the New Monkey, "this sure looks a lot like my forest looked before my forest got burned down to raise cattle for a fast food chain!"
So the very first thing that the New Monkey did when it arrived in this awesome forest was to walk up to a group of Other Monkeys.
The New Monkey was excited!
The New Monkey was so excited that it started thumping its chest and saying things like "OOOK OOOK EEEK ACCCKK AAACCKK!!! LOOK at this delicious fruit!!!! It's a banappleloupe! You ALL NEED to eat it, it is the BEST!!! ACCK ACCK IT IS IMPORTANT!!! LET'S ALL GROW BANAPPLELOUPE TREES SO YOUR FOREST DOESN'T END UP LIKE MINE!!!"
The New Monkey was so excited it was shouting at the Other Monkeys! It was shouting, jumping up and down, pointing at its banappelope, and thumping its chest!
The Other Monkeys looked at the New Monkey and turned their backs.
"Buzz off, monkey," piped up the leader of this particular group of monkeys. "I've got kids to feed and a job to go to, I have no time to try out your banappelope. I'm not interested."
Some of the Other Monkeys were actually mildly interested in what the New Monkey was going on about. But they decided that if most of the monkeys they knew were not interested in the newcomer, especially their leader, then it was best to stick with the troop. So they kept their mouths shut.
The New Monkey felt hurt at first. But then it went for a walk in the forest to calm itself down.
A little bird came up to the New Monkey and chirped gently into its ear.
The little bird explained, "Of course these Other Monkeys are going to be suspicious of a New Monkey's motives. After all, they've all been getting along just fine without you or your banappelopes. They haven't seen what happened to your forest. Their forest is fine. They probably just figure that you want one of their jobs. There aren't a lot of jobs in this forest, you know!"
The New Monkey listened to the little bird, until it understood and felt better. Then it quietly said to the Other Monkeys "Hey guys, I'll be other there", pointing off into the forest.
And then it left them alone.
The New Monkey went off to sit quietly off to the side of the forest, away from the Other Monkeys, to enjoy its banappelopes. It saved a few seeds, and planted a few trees for itself, to make sure it would never need to take a job away from one of the Other Monkeys.
After a short while, The New Monkey learned to quit caring what the Other Monkeys thought. Soon the New Monkey was too busy enjoying its banappelopes, and all of the beautiful sights, sounds and smells of its new forest home to give any thought to what the Other Monkeys were even up to.
The little bird was very nice. It kept coming back to check on the New Monkey. The little bird kept the New Monkey company once in a while, and the New Monkey didn't feel lonely at all.
Eventually some of the Other Monkeys started thinking, "Huh, that New Monkey looks awfully happy. And it is always eating banappelopes! Maybe we should go see what banappelopes are all about."
The New Monkey was pleasantly surprised to be approached by a few of the Other Monkeys.
"Oh, you wanna try some banappelope?" said the New Monkey, "Here you go."
The New monkey busted up a ripe, juicy banappelope for all of the monkeys to share.
"How much do you want for this?" asked one of the Other Monkeys, suspiciously, as it took a chunk.
"Oh I don't want anything for it, I have plenty to share". Said the New Monkey. The New Monkey was so happy that the Other Monkeys had come to visit that it smiled a very big smile!
As it turned out, a few of the Other Monkeys did like banappelopes very much!
So much so that eventually those monkeys got together and thought, hmmm, these are actually really good, now that more of us are eating them, how can we grow more?
One of the Other Monkeys said "I know!".
"I know where there's a bare spot in the forest! We could all rehabilitate it by pooping on it and plant a few banappelope trees!"
And that is what they did! The plan worked out wonderfully. The trees grew big and tall, fertilized by all of the monkeys' poop!
In time, all of the monkeys had as many banappelopes as they could eat, and soon the Other Monkeys could afford to spend less time at their jobs. Some of the Other Monkeys, who didn't need much to live on, even became able to quit jobs that they didn't like!
The New Monkey cautioned the Other monkeys, though. It cautioned them not to go chopping down the rest of the forest to grow banappelopes, because not everyone likes banappelopes.
"Let's just try to get along, the monkeys who like banappelopes and the monkeys who don't." said the New Monkey.
Eventually the monkeys who loved banappelopes, and the monkeys who didn't care for banappelopes, were able to all work together. By pooping on bare patches of forest, and planting more banappelope trees, the monkeys made their forest very profitable. In time their forest became even more profitable than it would have been if it was cleared for cattle.
So the forest where they all lived was never cleared to raise cattle for a fast food chain, like New Monkey's former home.
Eventually the monkeys got televisions and so they could watch MNN (Monkey Network News). The monkeys would all sit in a tree together and watch stories from the New Monkey's former home, as well as stories about other forests that had been cleared to raised cattle for fast food chains.
All of the monkeys realized how lucky they were to have a beautiful forest and lots of food share, and they all lived happily ever after:
The End.
No comments:
Post a Comment