Sara’s Summons

Sara answers the phone on the seventh ring. She was greeted with a deep

guttural voice with a gleeful laugh in between sentences. The voice

commanded, “I am glad you answered on the seventh ring because if you had

waited for another ring I would have hung up and you would have missed your

last chance to redeem yourself from uncertain nightmares to come.”

“ Listen carefully. Here is your challenge. I know more about you than you

ever would guess. I know that you were born on the seventh day of the

seventh month of 2007. I know you have studied the Enneagram and that your

enneagram number is seven. God rested on the seventh day after the earth’s

creation, hence Sunday, seventh day of the week is a permanent template,

just as your new word, combining the vices and virtues of your life will be your

template for triumph over temptation from now on...”

“In order to avoid calamity, you have seven days to redeem yourself and save

your life as you live it now. There are seven deadly sins and seven heavenly

virtues. In the next week, which is seven days, you must identify in numerical

order according to their importance your seven deadly sins. Next, you must

correct those sins by acting out their corresponding virtues. In this way, you

will neutralize their effect for at least one week and have a foundation to work

on for the rest of your life.”

“You must also come up with a word that combines both the virtue and the

vice in one word and use it as a mantra to guide you through a systematic way

of diminishing the vices and enhancing the virtues. The French refer to it as a

blend or a ‘portmanteau’. An example is ‘hubrility’, born of hubris and

humility. I will know when your assignment is complete because you will get

another phone call seven days from now and you will answer on exactly the

seventh ring. I am not at liberty to tell you the consequences of your refusal to

comply with these orders however, I trust you will follow through because

enneagram sevens are noted for going to any length to avoid pain.”Sara stood by the phone for a minute, with a racing heart and what seemed

like a stupefied mind. She said to herself, “Was that phone call real or what?

He knew too much about me. I will have to prove to him that I can do this, so I

will take a week off from work and begin now”.

Sara was somewhat of a word artist, and she operated in a universe of

opposites attract. That is one reason she was not unnerved by the

contravening harshness and laughter in her conversation with the mysterious

caller.

Without much thought, Sara went into possible portmanteaus for her vices

and virtues. She began with “hubrility”, which was a mixture of hubris and

humility, the one free one she got. She moved on to the greed and generosity

and came up with “generied”. Next was lust and celibacy, so she went with

“celibust”. For sloth and diligence, came “sliligence”. She used “glubriety”

for gluttony and sobriety. “Encharity” seemed like a perfect compromise

between envy and charity. And last, but not least, she came up with

“slothdulous” for a combination of sloth and sedulous.

STAY TUNED FOR NEXT EPISODE