Once upon a very long time ago there was a tiny country that almost nobody knew about then and has long since been forgotten. It was called SOTTLAND.
When, on very rare occasions, a traveler would happen by and, wondering about this rather unusual name, ask;
"Why is this place called SOTTland don't you mean Scotland?"
The people, all 400 of them would puff out their not so very big chests and loudly proclaim
"No, we are not SCOTS. We are SOTTs, SEEKERS OF THE TRUTH."
"Oh!", the stranger would reply, "Have you found it yet?."
"Of course we have" the Sotts would yell "But we do not share this great secret with non-Sotts!".
The visitor would mumble something like "Sorry" or "Whatever" and scurry out of town.
When there were no strangers around the "Seekers" would argue among themselves about just what this "Truth" was.
A few would pretend to know the answer but, since these few never shared their great "knowledge" with the others, nobody was really sure about what truth really was.
They would just hang around, drink beer and heatedly argue about which of them really did know "truth", or for that matter much of anything.
Now there was a really old Wizard in this land (and I mean REALLY old). Nobody seemed to know his age (and he wouldn't tell).
His beard had grown so long that if the "Wiz" had not been rather tall he would have stepped on the end of his quite extensive whiskers.
Given how really old he was that could have been a catastrophe, like he could have broken some bone or another.
The Wizard was worried no end (like, a lot) about the people in his tiny country.
He couldn't have been more worried if it had been a BIG country.
This very wise and aged gentleman had been trying to teach the Sottlanders about going within to find the truth.
He would patiently explain that you should question what you thought might be true, then go within and seek the answers.
A few of the SMIO (the slightly more intelligent ones) would nod and murmur "He may have something there."
Mostly the people just griped and complained and insisted that the Wise One "Just tell them what the heck this TRUTH was dollblameit" (Pronounced doll-blame-it).
Sottland had rather dismal weather, always damp and muggy. When it wasn't raining, it was foggy.
The people would stumble around and bump into things and each other and yell "Watch where your going dollblameit" (that was a favorite expression for them).
But occasionally it would be a sort of nice day with no rain and with the fog far enough off the ground so one could see a whole mile, more or less.
On one almost nice day the Wizard ventured forth to enjoy a stroll without it being necessary to stoop below the fog and hold his beard off the ground with one hand.
You see he needed a cane to help him get around. If he was holding his beard in one hand and his cane in the other, on a foggy day, he had no way to fend off the occasional Sott who came wobbling by.
These people staggered around a lot as arguing made them very thirsty and the water in this land had a dismal flavor.
This meant that the natives drank large quantities of the only good tasting beverage available, locally brewed beer.
So on this day the wise one decided this would be a good time to assemble the people and talk to them again. "If," he reasoned, "I try harder I can get my point across and I really must as my years are certainly numbered."
He climbed to the top of a little mound in the center of the square. Ducking a bit to keep his tall hat out of the fog, he called out "OYEZ, OYEZ gather ye around me my children."
Old Wiz loved to talk like that, though the ordinary Sotts didn't know what he was hollering.
But out of curiosity they would mumble the 'favorite expression' and stroll or stagger out to the square to see what was up.
These talks were about the only entertainment in that long ago time, except when the arguing and 'dollblameits' led to punching and wresting.
Or in the case of the womenfolk, scratching and biting, since punching and wrestling was not lady-like.
Mostly, watching that action was much better than listening to the Wise Man. But with no fights on this day they thought
"What the heck, let's go listen to the old goat, dollblameit."
So they did.
Clearing his throat, the Wizard began.
"My children, I am not long on this planet and feel compelled to further address you on the subject of Searching for Truth."
This brought a grumbling mumble of "Oh no, not again" and "Dollblameit, can't he talk about something else?"
The great teacher ignored the grumbling-mumbling and continued.
"For many years I've tried to explain to your Mothers and Fathers and to you that to find the Truth, you must question what you think it is and instead look inward.
Go within yourselves and ask for direction and guidance."
Standing in the middle of the crowd was a pompous person who wore a large gold medallion around his neck proclaiming "I Am Doctor Muddle and I know lots of stuff."
When the Wiz told of the looking inside for truth, the Doctor spoke up, quite loudly, "Hookydooley" (his favorite word).
"I've looked inside a whole lot of people and found only inside parts. There was no truth in there, I tell you, only messy stuff."
The kindly Wizard replied, "Good doctor, I mean within the SOUL."
The Doctor snorted disgustedly and shouted "No such thing as a Soul have I found in anybody old man. You are really full of Hookydooley."
"Oh my" the wizard quipped, "And have you found any of THAT in the people you cut open?"
This miffed the doctor a lot.
As a matter of fact he stayed miffed because the people of Sottland didn't use his services much, unless they broke one or more bones or got sick from drinking the really bad water.
Mostly he had patients with enlarged livers from all the beer they consumed. These he would cut open and peer inside while nodding and proclaiming, "Yup that's a swollen liver all right, about as big as I've seen."
Since he couldn't do much about the liver ailment, he'd sew the victim up and charge them a bundle.
The people of SOTTland didn't have much money, so they would buy the doctor a beer or two and promise to pay him at the end of the month.
Of course that never came about, which is why Doc Muddle was miffed all the time.
The crack about finding Hookydooley in the cut apart citizens really popped his cork and he screamed, "I don't have to listen to this, I'M a DOCTOR."
Then he scurried home, packed his bags, and left town in a Huff.
(A unique vehicle not too popular with the Sotts. More information on Huffs will be found at the end of this story).
By this time the weather had returned to its normal low ceiling and the crowd sort of drifted off to quench thirsts and things like that.
This turn of events was not noted by the Wiz for some time as his head was no longer below the fog level.
He kept on talking until he realized that since there was no more mumbling to be heard most likely there was no audience.
A quick peek below the cloud level confirmed the fact. So he went home.
As mentioned before, the Wise one was very old and becoming more stoop shouldered with time.
One day the worst of his fears came true.
He was pacing the floor of his Wizard place, not paying attention to the beard which was dragging along at his feet.
The poor old guy tripped on the whiskers and fell with a crash.
Because of a loud popping sound, and considerable pain in his hip he knew that an ancient bone had fractured.
Indeed it had and the Wizard lay there knowing he would never again stand and walk.
Feeble shouts for help where not heard and after a couple of days the antique one realized all was lost.
With a scrawny forefinger he wrote a message in the considerable dust of the cottage floor.
It read "What is Truth?"
Before he could add "Look within for the answer", old Wiz died.
The citizens didn't even miss the Wise one for about a week until, needing someone to help settle an argument, a couple of Sotts went to the Wizards hovel.
Not hearing a response to their knocking and calling they pushed open the door and found their teacher lying there.
Grasping the body by the ankles, the discoverers of this grim scene pulled the remains out to the yard.
A simple ceremony was held and the Wiz was put to rest where the citizens could view the grave whenever they wandered by.
What no one knew was that when the old man was dragged out of his house one outstretch arm trailed through the dusty writing in such a way the "?" After "Truth" was erased.
This of course changed the entire meaning of the words scrawled in the dust.
Instead of a question the sentence appeared to be a statement.
So when a couple of the slightly more intelligent ones (SMIO) visited the wizard place a few days later, looking for stuff to scrounge of course, one of the pair spotted the writing and mouthed the words, "What is Truth-."
He stared at the message for a moment then shouted to his companion, "Look the Wiz left us the answer."
SMIO #two sauntered over to take a look. "Whooie" said he "I do believe you are right."
Like a lot of people when they think they have found something worthwhile, the two SMIOs made plans to turn this great find to their own advantage.
They would start a church and charge the people to hear them teach.
So they did, and called it the "Sottland First Temple of What."
This was declared by a sign erected in front of the Wizard's place.
SMIO#1 (the first to read the supposed message) decided the first day of the week, called "Oneday", would be a good time for meetings.
This was mainly because the local brewery used this day to make a new batch of beer and the taverns, having little to sell, were shut down.
On the next "Oneday" the Head Priest of What, as he liked to call himself, stood in front of the temple and in a very loud voice proclaimed "Oyez, Oyez, come hear the truth." SMOI #2 was delegated to ringing an old cow bell.
Well it was old and did come from an old cow, so there.
The people came, mostly out of curiosity, and seated themselves on the floor of the deceased Wise Ones old shack.
"Numero Uno" (as he called himself) cleared his throat and stated
"Good people, the Wonderful Wizard has left me a great secret and I'll tell it to you.
The truth is WHAT."
"What?" said someone in the audience.
"Yes," replied the self styled priest, "WHAT."
This brought a full chorus of "What?" from the audience.
Number one was pleased and with great joy shouted "I am thrilled that you have grasped the truth so easily."
"What truth?" asked the gathering.
"You got it" said SMIO #1, "WHAT."
"Dollblameit, got what?" cried the group.
"Yes" came the shouted answer "WHAT."
About that time the brewery bell announced the making of a new batch of beer, so the seated Sotts let out a cheer and rushed out the door.
Priest #1 was ecstatic. "They got it, they got it," he cried, "And they are going forth to spread the news."
The SMIO delegated to the number two spot snorted, "They got nothing, dollblameit, they're just going for beer."
Then, being more than a bit upset at not being a high priest himself, he also sallied forth, but not for beer. He was determined to start his own Temple of What and be the top dog.
His was called "Sottland Second Temple of What."
Now, on "Oneday", the Oyez cry came from two places at the same time. Some of the Sotts went to one temple, the rest to the other.
A few temple goers decided this was a pretty good thing and left to establish their own place to worship "WHAT."
The problem was that since most of them couldn't read or write very well the name of the next church turned out to be;
"The Reel Temple of WAT."
Another group formed the "Really Real Tempul of WATT, Reformed."
Then came the "Trooly Real Temple of WOT," followed by "The Only Really Truly Real Temple of Wott."
It didn't stop there. A group of non Sotts, who happened by, were intrigued by the idea and started their own place of 'whatever'; "Ze Onliest Demple uf VOT."
Well now that really ticked off the other "Churches", so they more or less grouped together to run the "New thought" people out of the country by yelling stuff like "Blasphemers, Witchcrafters, Devil Worshipers, Cultists etc.."
By this time the younger Sotts, that is those under fifty, were pretty tired of the whole mess.
They gathered their families and belongings and headed for some other place to live, taking off in whatever direction they happened to be looking.
It wasn't long before the only folks left in the country were the older, "set in their ways", types.
These were scattered among the various churches or temples and none of the places had much of an audience on the day of worship.
Oh yes: The brewery, not having enough customers, closed its doors and moved on to a more lucrative location.
This left the remainder of the population with only the bad tasting water to drink.
None of the farmers stuck around either.
Soon there was precious little to eat except weeds and bushes.
The end result was the Sotts that were left starved to death while feebly shouting at each other, "I'm right and you are wrong, DOLLBLAMEIT."
In a very short time they had all passed on to whatever reward was theirs.
Things would have ended anyway as a ten year drought came upon the land and everything dried up, turned to dust and blew away. The only thing left standing was a fountain with a big piece missing (See footnote).
If there is a moral to this tale it's this. Don't just take anybody elses idea for what is Spiritual Truth.
Examine it for yourself.
Make your own decision. You're the one who has to live with it.
(Footnote)
HUFF: A vehicle designed and built by the only local carriage and wagon maker.
In order to make the forward view more to the liking of certain "picky" people the horse was harnessed behind the buggy.
While this arrangement did improve the view, it had at least one serious drawback.
Control of the Huff became impossible at speeds faster than a trot.
This led to smashing into things, which was not good for the passenger's health.
The Huff inventor prudently left town one night, shortly after the wife of the governor was badly hurt when her cab-forward carriage crashed into the main fountain.
The fountain (the only remaining evidence that SOTTland existed) bears the scars even to this day.
Please keep in mind that this is just a FABLE and nothing more.
It's a bit of fun poking at the way some people can take information that is not fully understood and think that "Truth" has been found.
Many religions have gone this route. They take what somebody has decided is the truth in "Scripture" and form their own group of like believers.
The congregation hangs together pretty well until somebody within that group disagrees with whatever concept is being pursued.
Then comes a split up and another group is formed who know the "Truth."
Eventually the various "denominations" argue and fuss even to the point of coming to blows.
That's the problem which confronted the Wizard when he told his people "To go within."
That's where "Truth" really lies, within the place where we all can go to recognize who we really are.
ALL THE CREDIT
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