Shattering of the Tin Man
The Tin Man is bewildered and returns to his frozen state when faced with the torrent of mid-21st Century “rain.” He has joined Vandehei’s Passive-ist shard. His 21st Century freeze consists of positioning himself in a reclining chair and spends most of his day viewing lumberman competitions on his 48-inch TV screen. There is an entire channel on his cable package that is devoted to forest-related matters. He especially loves the ax throwing events and the contests involving chopping down trees and sawing timber. The Tin Man’s sense of agency in the world is shattered. He is no longer frozen in a forest of Oz but is instead now frozen in his apartment sitting on his Barcalounger. He watches other people wield axes rather than wield one himself.
The story doesn’t end here—for our Tin Man is not stupid and he does have a caring heart. He takes out the award (a large heart) that he had received from the Wizard. It was for philanthropy. The Tin Man decides to leave his recliner behind. He decided that he would become a philanthropist of the 21st Century and would donate money and time to a worthy organization. He would become one of Vandehei’s liberal warriors.
The Tin Man thought that a union for those involved in the lumber industry would be appropriate. He tried to contact the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen; however, he found that this union had gone out of business many years ago. This should have served as a stop light for our Tin Man: he was clearly out of date regarding the field of lumbering. He probably should have become one of Vandehei’s Niche-ers—checking everything out on the Internet before venturing out to the world of loggers and philanthropists without sufficient knowledge.
Our Tin Man was not deterred. He kept looking around for an appropriate union to which he could give money and time. The closest he could come was the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. He called the headquarters of this large union and talked to one of the “outreach” staff members. She listened patiently as the Tin Man spoke of his own history as someone who chopped down trees. A carefully worded statement was delivered by the “outreacher.” She noted that the cutting of trees was not under the auspices of this carpenter union and that tree cutting had moved quite a way since axes were being used to cut and trim trees. Our “outreacher” gently mentioned that heavily mechanized processes and new digital lazar technologies were taking the place not only of men wielding axes, but men wielding saws. She thanked the Tin Man for his short sharing of lumbering history and suggested he enroll in a technical college to learn more about the new lumber-processing technologies.
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