Integrity and Values In Mental Health

Realizing the Larger Self

The Older Man and The Amusent Park

Once upon a time, there was a place that resembled an amusement park—something like Disney Land. This was a place where rides, exhibits, and dramatic stagings prevailed. Each area of activity (World) had a separate entry. At the entries, general tokens purchased at the park entrance and stored on the iPhones of the guests of the park could be converted into specific admission entry cards. When converted to cards, the credits could only be used in the World the card applied to.

On a given day, a park visitor is an older man who wants to go on a ride that resembles an ancient galley (a ship powered by sails and oars). The galley moves through a virtual world that features in astonishing detail the activities and challenges of the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Ancient Egypt, where on some days a battle or storm rages and on other days peace and prosperity prevail, as is seen in the friendly passing of ships laden with grain and other goods in passage to distant ports.

The older man passes through the admission gate and under the eye of a park attendant converts the general credits displayed on his iPhone into an admission card for Galley World.

It is late in the day, and few people are visible in Galley World. In fact, as he looks around, the older man sees no others at all. But he assumes that the loading phases of the next voyage of the galley is just starting and goes and takes his seat.

He waits patiently but begins to feel nervous when he notices that the park attendants seem to be cleaning up, and he notices that no more passengers have entered. The mystery is resolved when a park attendant comes over to the galley and says, “Excuse me sir, the ride has been cancelled. We are closing for the day. Please leave the by exit.” The attendant points to the exit gate before walking away.

The older man is infuriated. What is this! He has exchanged credits for the ride, and now there is to be no ride! He disembarks from the galley and storms over to the first park attendee he sees.

“I need to get my money back,” he cries. “I paid to go on the galley ride, but the Galley World has closed for the day!”

The attendant’s expression is sympathetic, but he shrugs and says, “Sorry. I feel for you, sir, but there is nothing I can do. There are no refunds.”

“This is not fair. I paid!”

“Yes, I know,” the attendant says. “It’s bad. You can’t come back tomorrow because admissions are for a day. It is a tough situation. Sorry.”

The attendant grimaces and repeats that he is sorry before gesturing that he needs to get back to his tasks. He walks away.

The older man is flabbergasted. He cannot comprehend how it could be that the amusement park could be so insensitive to its guests. He angrily exits Galley World and just outside the exit gate, he sees another park attendant. This one is not dressed like the Gallen World crew.

“Say,” the older man says, moving toward hlm and trying to be calm, “I need to ask you something. You work here, right?”

“Sure, I am a park general manager. I work with all the worlds. How can I help you?”

“I changed my credits so that I could ride the galley in Galley World.” The older man holds out his iPhone, which shows the park ap, and gestures toward the Galley World exit. “But they closed for the day after they let me in! No ride! I feel like I've been ripped off. I paid for nothing!”

The Geneal Manager nods sympathetically as he listens and replies forcefully:

“Well, of course! I am so sorry that happened to you. That is terrible!"

The older man is surprised and has to stifle tears as the General Manger continues:

"It does happen every once in while when the gate attendants think that there are more people coming than are really there. But don’t worry! It can be fixed! Just take your iPhone to any park exit, explain what happened, and they will refund your credits. In fact, if you’d like, I will go with you right now.”

The older man feels a wave of relief flooding through him. It is amazing that fixing things are so easy. He takes deep breaths and nods as he follows the Geneal Manager toward the park exit.

At the exit, a smiling attendant credits his credit card with the cost of the ride. He will lose what he does not use, but in this case, he is not troubled, because the general admission fee amounts to a minimum that he does not mind at all.

The General Manger apologizes again for the inconvenience. “I hope you will come see us again, Sir, and just remember that if a ride or exhibit closes too soon, you can go to any LIMIT (that’s what we call the exits) and get a refund.”

The older man exits the amusement park and walks along a peaceful tree-lined boulevard a parking structure. As he goes he thinks over what has happened.

The attendant in the Galley World was wearing the costume of an ancient mariner. He was an inhabitant of the Galley World. The world outside the Galley World was outside his area of knowledge. This explained his answer. Inside the Galey World, there were no refunds. To learn about the larger world, older man had to ask someone who had the right kind of knowledge. This was the Park Manager.

The older man thought about this in relation to the notion of “Limit.” He began repeating, “at any Limit, there is a refund.”

He then thought about this in terms of something he had studied recently, the Bateson-Dilts model of personal logic.

For a discussion of the Bateson-Dilts Logical Model, click Next.

2023 © John P Flynt, PhD | Your Horizon Counseling

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