Kevin J OBrien

Warm Fuzzies

by Richard Lessor

Once upon a time there was a beautiful valley, impossible for tourists to reach. It was not on maps and tourists sped by. There were no motels, no golf courses, no TV's, no restraunt chains, but the people of the valley didn't miss any of these things.

They were just ordinary people, just like the people you'll find anywhere, except for two things. They were happy. . And they had "Warm Fuzzies!" Some people are happy only when they are at a party or when they win a contest, but Happy Valley people were happy almost all the time They enjoyed Monday mornings, a blizard, kids home from school in the middle of the week. They were so simple they didn't know it takes things to make some people happy, or that some people could make you unhappy.

Their problem was that they liked people! They never mistrusted or were suspicious of other people. They went out of their way to do each other favors. Most of all they enjoyed meeting and greeting each other. When they met people, they gave each other "Warm Fuzzies." Now what is a "Warm Fuzzy?" It is something like a little puff of warm, soft fur. The "Warm Fuzzies" love to be given away. It always made the village people feel better to give them away to others. It ment "I care about you. You are wonderful. You make my day brighter."

So the custom of giving "Warm Fuzzies" grew over the years. They gave them to sick people , to young couples start ing a new home, everyone, because the "Warm Fuzzies" brought lots of cheer to every person. Everybody looked foward to exchanging "Warm Fuzzies" and it kept everyone happy.

One day a wicked old witch flew over the valley of the "Warm Fuzzies" and she saw what was going on. "This is ridiculous," she said. "I've got to do some thing about all these people They are so simple that the may spend their whole lives thinking that they are happy. They need to be like the rest of the world." So she wipped up a plan to help the Happy Valley people get rid of the notion that they were happy. She flew down to the village and pretended she was sick, and shure enough, a kindly lady came up with a "Warm Fuzzy" in her hand and gave it to the witch. the wicked old witch asked her how many "Fuzzies" she had and she began to put evil thoughts in to the lady's head, such as, "Some day you are going to run out of fuzzies and no one will give them back" and " Did it ever occur to you that other people may be deliberately inviting you to their home so that you have to give away your "Warm Fuzzies" just so they can hoard more of them?" She spread the rumor that there would be a shortage of "Warm Fuzzies." Well the wicked witch's plan worked! The Village people started hoarding "Fuzzies" instead of sharing them! The people would cross the street to avoid a friend. They stayed home and worried about people stealing their "Fuzzies."

The fuzziless months turned into fuzziless years and soon there were quite a few people in the valley who had never even heard of a "Warm Fuzzy." The valley filled up with strangers and people didn't know their neighbors anymore.

Then one day a great-grand mother was telling her grand children about the good old days when everybody gave away "Warm Fuzzies" and how good it made you to get one. And the children got so excited that they all went out and gathered up all the "Warm Fuzzies"; they could find and they began to give them away to each other. It brought much happiness back to the Valley people and they realized how selfish they had been. They lived happily ever after.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Kevin J. O'Brien
Comments to author: obriek3@rpi.edu