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In a deep valley between two mountain ranges lay Okana. It was a beautiful land, not far from the Peaceful Sea whose breezes greened it in Spring and lushed it during the hot days of Summer. In Winter the sharp North winds whitened it with frost and snow. Yet Winter didn’t maul it as cruelly as the plains over the mountains east. Nor did the sun bake it like the desert lands far to the south. Yes, Okana was a good place to live; too good, as you’re about to hear. Now, it would be very wrong of me to call the Okans lazy. Far from it. They were about as hard-working folk as any I know and a good deal more active than some I could mention. But they were … how shall I say? Laid-back? Yes, they were very laid-back and easy-going. Probably because they were so content. They gossiped and wanted to know what their neighbours were doing, but that’s natural isn’t it? We’re just made that way. They rarely fell out and I never heard of any of them coming to blows or putting money into lawyers’ pockets if they happened to disagree. Somehow they could always bring in a friendly neighbour, who sorted out differences before they got anywhere near a lawyer. So they were contented folk. They never pushed or shoved their way through life; never tried to climb any ladders to success at the expense of others. Indeed, they had no social ladders to climb in the first place, they lived life as it should be lived: contented and at peace with themselves and the world. But it’s one of life’s sad facts that when people are at peace, it doesn’t seem to go down at all well with those who are not. Such folks are mean. You can pick them out a mile off by their mean looks, for they look on with envy and say to themselves, “How can we destroy their peace?” |
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