+- International Simulation Football League (https://forums.sim-football.com)
+-- Forum: Community (https://forums.sim-football.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=5)
+--- Forum: Media (https://forums.sim-football.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=37)
+---- Forum: Graded Articles (https://forums.sim-football.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=38)
+---- Thread: *Making Amends or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Tea (/showthread.php?tid=51240)
*Making Amends or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Tea - Wiggli - 05-14-2024
**Narrated by Liam Neeson**
It’s time.
That regrettable incident? History.
One task lies ahead of you.
Wipe the slate clean.
The jury is still out on Juan (actually it’s not. I never anticipated doing any research on the common law system when I joined the league but here we are. It turns out ‘drink driving’ as the Brits call it is a summary offense adjudicated by a magistrate with no trial by jury. But let’s be real no matter where Juan had his escapade the prosecutors would have him dead to rights. He would have accepted some sort of plea deal and that’s exactly what the Royals’ legal team endorsed).
Okay maybe the jury is not out in the legal sense, but definitely in the more important court of public opinion. And that trial started immediately after the act. Not only did the selfie go viral but several videos captured every embarrassing detail. The cruelest by far documented Juan try to sack the traffic cop. You see that would have been his first career sack, he had none over the course of his first season. And text narration of the drunken nose tackles futile effort to even sack a civil servant earned every crying laughing emoji the internet had to spare.
Juan needed to win back the crowd. He needed to break himself down and conquer his demons. He needed to learn to love Britain and everything it embodied. Even tea. So he was enrolled in a wilderness retreat/substance abuse program/tea club in Sherwood Forest.
**Liam Neeson again**
The pursuit of perfection. A circle.
All points equidistant from a central focusing point.
Reality. An endless bed of pebbles; irregular.
To bring order takes work.
At the retreat Juan started every day raking a rock garden. A dozen concentric circles here rippling into another batch of concentric circles there. At least that was how it was supposed to look. Juan clumsily tried to create the ordered circles, but couldn’t get the rocks to bend to his will. They were wavy and irregular and greatly flustered Juan. And then he had to try and walk out of the middle of the garden. He couldn’t put a foot right, anything that remotely resembled the ordered garden it was meant to be was ruined as he stomped toward the exit.
Then there was the tea. Did you know tea is made from leaves? Juan didn’t. His first exposure to the stuff was using those freeze dried crystals. And at the London Royals’ locker room he only saw the end product.
“Is this really all you serve here?” Juan asked as he took a seat.
“Try some it may surprise you.” One of the attendants suggested with a smile.
Juan reached toward the tiny tea cup. He knew enough to know he needed to pinch his fingers around the handle and extend his pinkie. But when he tried to lift it, it barely budged. It was made of pure Tungsten!
“What kind of trick is this!” Juan devoting more effort to the task was able to steer the tea cup toward his face to take a closer look. But even still it careened this way and that unable to be controlled by the nose tackle.
“You lack strength good sir.” Was the attendant’s courteous response.
Juan was confused what sort of strength he needed, but nodded his head subtly. He knew exactly what he needed. A montage.
**Bonnie Tyler sings:**
Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the gods?
Where's the streetwise Hercules
To fight the rising odds?
Juan awoke each day at the crack of dawn. He put on his overalls and set out to get to work. That damned rock garden would learn to know its place. And bit by bit he got better at moving the rake in a cleaner arc. He even learned a way to hop side by side so as not to ruin his work when he left the garden.
Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed
Late at night, I toss and I turn
And I dream of what I need
Juan liked to take a nap in the afternoon. While he dreamed he worked on his manifesting skills. At first he dreamed of anything other than tea. Mountain Dew, cider, milkshakes. But everyday it was still tea when he woke up. And that damned heavy cup.
I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night
He's gotta be strong, and he's gotta be fast
And he's gotta be fresh from the fight
Teatime by teatime Juan took his seat and worked on lifting the tungsten tea cup. With time and effort he got stronger and more concentrated on the task at hand. And he was able to slowly sip the stuff and swallow it down. And surprisingly he started to like it. Was it possible? Could he actually like … tea?
I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning light
He's gotta be sure, and it's gotta be soon
And he's gotta be larger than life
Juan didn’t just like tea. He loved it. In his naps he dreamed of tea. And the tungsten tea cup. And the rock garden perfectly ordered.
Larger than life.
Juan received his diploma certifying him as a bona fide tea enthusiast and rock gardener par excellence. He entered weak and broken, a laughing stock in the London media. He left stronger, ready for the next challenge.
RE: Making Amends or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Tea - Twenty6 - 05-14-2024
If When you get a sack, time for you to strike a tea pose.