James the Transformer

Here some music to play that fits well with the Cheerio part of the story so give it a listen while you read!

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James's heart nearly jumped out of his chest with a nerve-rattling, paralyzing excitement.

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Cool sweat ran down James's forehead as he stared at the screen. waiting.

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The office exploded with cheers and yelps of joy as everyone celebrated their one million subscriptions. After years of hard work and thousands of hours of dedication, James has finally built an empire worth ruling. He found an office full of people who loved and supported his business while inspiring ONE MILLION readers every month.

In celebration James reached for his laptop to publish a story: The Cheerio's Tale

Once upon a time there was a world full of Cheerios. The world of Cheerios was structured in caste levels. The lowest level caste was the normal Cheerios while at the very top was the ruling frosted Cheerios. If anyone saw Cheerios in mixed caste relationships, they were ruthless towards them.

There lived a normal Cheerio who was in love with a frosted Cheerio. Because of their forbidden love, they had to sneak away to the forest to spend time with one another. One day they were walking along the path and several Cheerio-eating tigers were roaming nearby, hidden by the trees. However, the tigers had a problem. They had been cursed by a group of magical Cheerios and could only eat one type of Cheerio at a time. Because the Cheerios were so close to one another, the tigers needed to separate them in order to eat them. So the tigers summoned the powers of the magical forest to try and tear the two lovers apart.

First, the tigers sent a roaring flood of milk to wash away the two Cheerios. As soon as the normal Cheerio saw the flood, however, he took the milk and entwined it with the frosted Cheerio's skin, giving it a silver shine. Then the tigers tried throwing giant cut up strawberries and bananas at the Cheerios. The normal Cheerio took the fruit and fashioned large, vividly colored hats that he placed on the frosted Cheerio's head. Then the tigers tried flinging gigantic metal spoons at the Cheerios. But again, the Cheerio took the spoons and made them into beautiful golden earrings that he placed on the frosted Cheerio's ears. Frustrated with their lack of progress, the tigers finally left the pair to pursue easier prey.

The frosted Cheerio and normal Cheerio carried on their lives in secrecy, loving each other for the rest of their lives.

James looked back on how he felt like the normal Cheerio in this story. He used to see himself as a normal, run of the mill writer with potential to become something great. He took his stories, his frosted Cheerio, and dressed it with everything he could. He used his hardships to create something he was proud of. He could live with what he's done peacefully knowing he succeeded living his dream.

Now that James had created this amazing chapter in his life he couldn't help but wonder what was next.

Author's Note: This story is a recreation of the story of the dance of Shiva. During the original story, Shiva is walking along a path as a yogi. He is accompanied by Vishnu in the form of a beautiful woman. Evil rishis see the two walking together and them and their wives are very jealous of their beauty and form. They are suspicious of them. They then summon several bad things to attack the pair. This includes a tiger, a snake, and an armed dwarf. Shiva takes the tiger and transforms it into clothing which he wraps around himself. Then he takes the snake and turns it into a garland necklace. He then puts his foot on the dwarf and starts dancing on it. The relation here is that the regular Cheerio is Shiva. The beautiful frosted Cheerio is the beautiful woman walking with him. The Cheerio takes what the evil tigers are throwing at them and transforms them into things that he can wear, much like Shiva. This is a humorous way to look at the concept of Shiva's transformative nature. The deeper meaning relates back to James. James took the giant problem that was very much hindering his life (unemployment) and turned into into a successful and fulfilling life. He used all the aspects of Shiva that he learned and applied them to his life to become a better person.

I also added some music here in the form of a music video. The style in the video is a technique used by percussionists. They learn to say the rhythms along with playing.

Bibliography: Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists. Sister Nivedita. A Legend of Shiva's Dance

Images:

Nataraja Shiva - Wikipedia

Video:

V Shivapriya & BR Somashekar Jois - Youtube