Solomon's Private File #399
These stories about Stephen and Solomon take place starting in the
1950's. Stephen wrote about his life in letters to a penpal, and then
in a secure blog, in case he lost his memory again, in the master
computer in his school for gifted students, which he started attending
in 2016 in a new incarnation, until his death. Now his son Solomon is
attending the same school, and is writing in his own secure blog for
his future incarnations.
All characters are fictitious, even if some of them might have names
that belong to some actual people, or act like people we know.
Solomon is 33 in this story, in the Fall of 2059.
Solomon's Private File #399 "Story Teller"
START Page
There's been a lot of comment about the sin show. Some of that was
for what wasn't discussed. Some said those missing things were
discussed before. So they went back into past shows and communications,
and compiled a list with descriptions. Some people disagree with some
of them about what isn't a sin, but mostly like the list of sins, and
some churches are actually using them. Then there were comments about
creating a new Bible from what Dad and I did, added to all the other
Bibles. My lack of comment on that has made even more comments erupt.
Nervously.
Grand Ayatollah asked to see me. I said, "Your son almost had a heart
attack right on the show." He grinned, and said, "So he said. I'm sorry
for you that it was made public." I said, "But you're not sorry for YOU
that it is." He said, "True. It was you that made it happen." I said,
"Don't do that." He laughed. I said, "I did lead them into asking the
question that God prompted. I didn't have to mention Ali at all. It was
the right time; a show about sin." He said, "For your purposes, I have
to agree." I said, "After all this time of hope and speculation, it
makes little difference now." He said, "Unfortunately, yes. A well
managed situation." He laughed at my grin.
exist. Not so the Twelfth." He said, "Did he exist?" I said, "That's a
title the possible son of the Eleventh Imam was never officially given.
A child can't be an Imam, in reality." He said, "Don't do that." We
grinned. I said, "The child of a slave the authorities never knew
about, but some of the wives did. Some supporters of the Eleventh were
told, and some believed it. There were children at the funeral. Some
spoke, but it was not known to those who didn't know of the child,
which one he was. There was a lot of fear for his life. It terrified
the boy when he overheard a discussion of it. He ran away, and lived on
the streets as a beggar and story teller. And an occasional thief. One
day when he was 14, he was recognized by one of his father's supporters
who had been acting for the boy's supposed Imam status. He found the
boy to be wise much beyond his years, and very intelligent, but
fiercely independent, and very much loved and supported by the poor.
Those who operated the false Minor Occultation then made it real,
consulting him at times, which the boy profited from more than the
consulters did, not that they were aware of it."
He said, "So it was false and true! Amazing! How was he noticed?" I
said, "A matter of a stolen purse." He laughed. I said, "The boy grew
into a man widely known for his wisdom, who preferred to show it in his
very popular stories. Being wise, he was often consulted by many in
need of that, which was almost everybody." He chuckled. I said, "It was
also severely suspected that no purse was safe around him, but never
proved. His friends among the poor knew it was very true, while they
were spending the proceeds of that forced charity." He grinned. He
said, "How did he die?" I said, "A minor official felt he was insulted
by him, and sent a guard to kill him. Before that could happen, the
story teller was run over by a wagon while crossing the street. Well,
he was very slow in his old age." He said, "I suspect something. Did he
know of the guard's order to kill him? Did he cheat that death for one
of his own choosing?" I said, "You know he did." Grins.
I said, "He never considered himself to be anything other than who
and how he lived the life he loved, and NOT an Imam. You would have
liked him. Loved him maybe, but be supremely irritated by him for not
being who you would want him to be, and laughing at you for that. Yes,
he laughed a lot, often in times of his greatest danger." He said, "Do
you do that?" I said, "No. When he did it, it actually increased his
danger, almost getting him killed a number of times. I don't enjoy
danger. He did, foolishly at times. His greatest flaw, actually. I
know, it makes you like him all the more." He grinned, and said, "You
know it!"
He said, "Did he have children?" I said, "He did, but never knew it.
As was common among those of his very low class, he never married, or
even had a real home. But he was not celibate. His woman friends of
that nature didn't bother to try to discover who the father was of
their children, but the community did support them, and he was one of
the best of them for that. And you know all the children loved him and
his stories. He was as a father to them in reality, if not in biology."
He said, "Yes. As they love you now." I said, "Not the same children."
He grinned. He said, "You were a story teller. That one?" I said, "You
know why I shouldn't tell you that." He grinned even wider. I said,
"The Twelfth Imam you want, didn't exist. Couldn't, actually. Can't
now. It's supposed to signal the end of the world. Better not try to
make that happen." He sighed, and said, "You are wise. Don't do that."
Grins and a hug.
Galya said, "Can we have that life for the archives?" I said, "Done."
George said in the air, "I dived for it the moment you gave the hints.
Good life, and great story you made of it." Mom was staring at me. I
said to her, "I know what you want. A published story. Yes, I could do
it so it isn't obvious with the religious connection. More, I could
make it into a TV series. But to make it real, it would have to go to
an entertainment outlet. CNN wouldn't do the sex and gore. Neither
would PBS. And I don't have to say it was a past life of mine." Daren
said, "Fox would do it. Have some stories illustrated in it?" I said,
"Yes. That would be my reason for doing it." A lot of grins. Mom said,
"How many?" I said, "Long life, and a lot of stories good to share.
200, easily. He wasn't always a beggar. He did some traveling in his
late teens. I would show some of that in flashbacks." They all wanted
me to do it, and loudly.
I asked to meet with the president of Fox entertainment. I said, "Got
a series project." He said, "Are we first?" I said, "Yes. Biggest
penetration of available networks. I could ask Bravo and A&E, for
example. I could also just publish it on an internet channel, such as
TV Guide. Advantage for you is it doesn't cost anything to make it, so
you can have it cheap, and give some profits to charity. Good for your
image." He said, "You don't have to sell me. I'm already bought. What
you did for PBS is fantastic!" I said, "Thanks. Here's a crystal of the
premise, and the first episode. Got 200 shows so far." He said, "Wow!"
I said, "Before you read it?" Chuckles. Then he did, and said a louder
"WOW!" Then he said, "A real person?" I said, "Real life, yes. Don't
ask more about that. I'm not going to say." He nodded.
I said, "There are conditions. No modifications. I get approval of
all promos. My preface before all shows. I maintain all rights.
Merchandising tie-ins need my approval. No adds promoting alcohol,
drugs, even OTC, violent games, weapons, or religion. That happens
locally, I black out that program. Better warn them." He grinned. I
said, "I'll try to keep it clean, but real life can't be changed." He
nodded. I said, "You do well by this, I have an alien long term action
available, where I'm raising children and a society. The duel with
feathertops world." He said, "Wow! We want that!" I said, "Maybe not.
Got sex ed in it." He was conflicted. I said, "My people want me to
show my parenting ability." He said, "We want that too! The whole world
needs to see it. But I don't know if we could do it to all our
markets." I said, "So I could use a cable channel. But you would LOVE
to see what happened at Marcel's wedding, with the attacks." He said,
"Don't do that to me!" I just grinned. I said, "I'm also teaching some
psionic kids. They would want to see that, too. I don't teach torture,
even though you might think I'm practicing it with you." He sighed, and
had to smile.
I said, "Oh, wait. Some of my people are proposing I start a cable
and streaming channel of my own, free to providers." He said, "That
would take a while to set up. You want to air these shows now." I said,
"I didn't know you could sound that desperate." He tried to smile. I
said, "You can have non sole rebroadcast rights within a season, and as
long as they run, for the pilot. We'll also rebroadcast when we want,
but not the week of the first airing. We do have enough material for a
network lineup, with my father's broadcasts and mine, and there are lot
of shows he made that haven't yet been aired. And I can always make
more. So, let's talk deal." We did, and settled on a low price. I made
and ported the contracts to the desk. I said, "After your lawyers
recover from that, let me know, and you can start promos."
I said to George, "We need a cable and internet TV station." He said,
"We've got some people interested in that area. I'll assign them to it.
Well, to keep them quiet. Yes, they're asking, and loudly. You'll have
to do the selling of it." I said, "I said, "No, Rose will. She just
volunteered with a vicious grin." He laughed, and said, "Really?" I
said, "Slightly."
I said to Mom, "We want English, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and
Spanish language channels, and channels that will broadcast mainly in
English, with subtitles in Tibetan, Mongolian, French, Thai, Farsi,
Japanese, and Portuguese. Get with Kam on what lectures she'd like
published. She can time dive for what she wants, and can record her
own." She said, "Oh! We have to do that!" I said, "You know she
expected it." Grins. I said, "Ask Srinoy for what he might want to
publish from the schools, even classroom courses. If we're going to
have our own channel, we're going to USE it!" George said, "Yes!
Updating the crew." Grins. She said, "What about sponsorships?" I said,
"We're not selling any products, but we're intending personal
improvement. Will have breaks for show promotions and schedule
listings. Most shows will have a running time that will allow for
commercial broadcasting breaks, like PBS. We'll give them free spots to
promote their own shows." She said, "Good." I said, "And we might do
that for Discovery, Smithsonian, and Nat Geo channels, too. We approve
in advance. Discovery pays, but they don't have to know the others
won't." Grins. I said, "If a religion would like to show something of
themselves, we have to look at it very carefully before approving. If
PBS would let us have their children's shows, that would be nice. Does
Elmo speak Farsi?" Grins. She said, "You'll do translations." I said,
"Aww, if I have to." Pokes.
George said, "Rose is already on it. Carriers are drooling all over
themselves for a free must-watch channel. Some are even willing to pay
a lot for some exclusivity, but they want to bust in and show national
and local promos and ads. Not gonna happen." I said, "I can control
everything directly, using a millionth of my mind. Not a problem. Well,
for us." Grins. I said all that to the president of CNN. He said, "Can
we show promos for your shows with us?" I said, "Have to. If you
didn't, we would. We repeat next day. Fox still gets them in two weeks.
You're news. We're education." He said, "We'll support this!" I said,
"I knew that." Grins.
I said to George, "TV channels have web pages, email addresses,
chatrooms, and schedules. And somebody to work them real time. I could
do it, but somebody else might want to get some personal growth from
doing it." He said, "Yes. And we can keep out the abuse, too. We'll do
it. Going to cost." Kam said, "Tibet will pay for it." I said, "Thanks.
We accept. Studio there?" She said, "Good legal reasons, so yes!" Grins
and love. Mom said, "We've got a problem. What do we call it!" I said,
"Oops?" Pokes. I said, "Can't call it The Guardian Channel. That's a
newspaper. Or Messenger, for the same reason. All the good titles are
already trademarked. Call it The Stephen Channel? TSC for short. He's
dead. Can't sue us." She grinned, and said, "I have to agree with
that." I said, "We need a live talking head. Something people can
relate to." George said, "Already got volunteer hosts in disguise."
Galya said, "I'm one of them." I said, "Alright! Do I detect some
Guardian interest in this?" I was flooded with affirmatives and love.
I said to Pope Paulo, "We're setting up a TV channel. A lot of local
languages, and subtitles and closed captioning for others. Going to
have my news shows, Stephen's shows and concerts, and he left us a lot
shows we haven't broadcast yet. I've got some long term actions
elsewhere that I'm going to show, which might air on Fox first, for
income. May include some PBS shows and others we like. No selling. Will
have live hosts. If a religion wants to show people about itself, we'll
air it after approval." He said, "Local providers could insert
commercials." I said with a grin, "No they couldn't." He grinned. I
said, "Life of the Buddha is going on it, and some of Kam's lectures.
We've got 24 hours a day to fill up. Some repeats, but not too many. I
want to do a tour of Vatican art." He said, "Yes!" I said, "If you want
be on architecture. A whole series of them. Cathedrals and such.
Complaints?" He said, "Full support. Would you do biographies on the
Popes?" I said, "Er, you shouldn't ask for that. Truth hurts." He said,
"Oh. Right. Thanks." We hugged.
I said similar things to the Imams of Mecca and Medina. They were
very happy to be included. Then the Grand Ayatollah. He said, "In our
language?" I said, "In subtitles, or spoken, we don't know yet. So
many!" He said, "I understand. We WILL support it!" We hugged. Then the
Russian Orthodox Patriarch. He said, "Your last show. I wasn't invited
because of our Icons?" I said, "Yes. I wanted to spare you that
embarrassment. I didn't even mention it specifically." He said, "Thank
you for ignoring me." Grins. He said, "You will have our full support.
Our government may give you trouble over access to some buildings.
We'll tell them to not do that, strongly." I said, "I can make it so
they'll never know until the program airs, but if you would like to
Thank you!" Grins and a hug.
I said similar things to the President of LDS. He said, "The funeral
show let people see inside our most holy place. You can do as much of
that as you want. I would ask for approval, if I thought that would be
needed." I said, "Not even a little, just for fun?" Chuckles and a hug.
I asked to meet with the leaders of the Sikhs. I told them about our
plans, and said, "I would like to do a show about your religion. If you
had pride, you would have it for that. How about we let others have
some for you, instead?" Grins and a lot of hugs. I asked to meet with
the leaders of the Quakers. I told them about our plans, and asked to
do a show about them. One said, "Not many people know of us except on
cereal boxes. We don't mind that. Will we have final approval of it?" I
said, "Your message, your approval. No lies, and must be fair and
accurate. I won't do anything else. Private lives of people won't be
included except by their request, unless they were publicly active in a
usually private issue." He said, "That sounds fair. Other religions?" I
said, "As we can, yes. Most I won't have to ask." Grins. I said,
"Catholic is going to get much more airtime, but not that much for the
actual religion. Architecture and art." One said, "Yes, you should do
those, and with your past research, too." I said, "If our web site gets
questions about your religion, want to work them?" One said, "We
should. Please let us know when all this becomes active." I said, "As
if we could keep it a secret." Grins. A lot of hugs.
Mom said, "PBS wants in as much as we'll allow. They'll give us kid's
programs. You know Nat Geo and Smithsonian are in. Discovery wants to
bargain." I said, "I really want to watch that." Hard grins. She met
with the network president and staff, and said, "You're a commercial
network. We don't need you. We're trying to be nice, and let you be
involved. We will promote some of your shows on your networks that we
like. If you pay. Our channel and web site costs, even of our
programming doesn't. Fox is contributing. So is CNN. And Tibet. In
return, we will list you among our supporters. No, you don't get to see
our programs before they air. Some of them WE won't even see in
advance, when Sol shows an action. We approve anything you send us." He
said, "You're not asking us to promote your channel?" She said, "No. We
don't need it. You can if you want, but if you do anything we dislike,
well, don't make me have to grin." That made them nervous. She said,
"But I will tell you this. We don't plan to show naked belly dancers.
Do I detect some disappointment here?" Chuckles. They said they would
get back to her.
George said, "Canada has a problem. Educational channels have to have
something specific to Canada in them." I asked to meet with the
government department in charge of that. I said, "You don't want our
channel on your country." He said, "It's not that, but the law requires
that your channel have some specific to Canada programming." I said,
"Yes it is that. We aren't going to do that. We'll have French language
programming where needed, but that's it. We're not a news channel. If
you want to be the only country not to have us as we are, that's much
more your problem than mine. YOU have constituents. I don't. We're not
a profit making enterprise. We can't change everything for every
country, and we're not going to. If your laws keep us out, change them,
if you want us in." He said, "Not even a little added programming?" I
said, "Well, we could have our announcer say 'eh' a lot, and apologize
for everything all the time, but that's all." He had to smile. I said,
"We will NOT put a caribou in the studio!" He had to chuckle.
King of Saudi Arabia asked to see me. He said, "Your television
channel. It is sure to have things on it we wouldn't allow." I said,
"Oh? What would that be?" He said, "I don't actually know. Some of the
things on CNN we wouldn't approve." I said, "But they showed here, and
on Al Jazeera, too." He said, "True. We had to show your shows. I see.
It will be the same for your channel." I said, "Mostly, yes, actually.
We won't promote any religion, but there will be shows discussing them,
but as it relates to their principles and history, with respect. We
won't be showing sex. My sister will have some lectures. Some other
science and history programming. And a lot of my long term actions that
would be too much for CNN. Fox is going to be showing a series on an
old story teller. We'll be repeating that. No, I'm not saying it was
one of my lives." He grinned and nodded.
He said, "So I will have to trust you." I said, "If you allow the
channel, yes. You can always change your mind, but you can't do that
for an individual show. Not enabling that could save your life." He
nodded, and said, "I know what you mean. If I don't allow it, there
will be a lot of trouble." I said, "Not as much as Canada is having.
Their laws require some Canada specific programing. We aren't going to
do that. Officials aren't happy. Going to be much less happiness when
that goes public." He grinned widely. Then he said, "Why are they that
way?" I said, "They've been trying for more than a hundred years to not
be a clone of America. They don't realize that culturally, it's
actually the reverse. A lot of their TV programs and actors are in
America, because the Canadians often do it do it better and with less
money. America has a bigger viewing public." He said, "We'll allow it.
You knew that." I said, "I knew you were intelligent, yes." We grinned
and hugged. I said just before I shifted out, "The Imams if Medina and
Mecca are on board with this, and will be assisting in the hosting of
tours of their buildings." He laughed. He would have agreed much
faster, if I had told him that before.
END Page
--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Grant
|
|