The Gate of the Wise was a huge, huge ball. It was so big that it was almost touching the sky. In the middle it had a big gate-door through which we entered. We were so amazed by what we were seeing.
Once we passed the gate, it felt as if we stepped into another world. All around us, from top to bottom, there were shelves. It looked like we were in a library, but instead of books, there were balls on those shelves. They were deflated and very dusty, as if they had been sitting there for hundreds of years. There were so many shelves that it would have been impossible to count the balls.
Color was still outside, talking to the small balls. He wanted to learn more about the Gate of the Wise and what we had to do in order to receive the seal. After he was done talking, he came to us and said:
“When the small balls on Uranus get old, they retire here, on these shelves. They wait here until they regain their strength. Once every few years, there are strong storms on Uranus. This big ball is gathering all the energy from the storm and it gives it to the small balls on the shelves. Then the balls become happy and energetic again. It is as if the elders wait there for a while, until the planet helps them regain their strength to play again. All the small balls from Uranus came here at some point in their lives, so no one laughs at the old balls.”
“It is as if on our planet or on other planets, no one would laugh at the elders and consider them weak and pitiful. When you go through this stage of life multiple times, you understand what it means to be old and powerless. You understand better and you become more empathic. That is why the balls on these shelves are called wise.”
We all listened to the story carefully. I started thinking about the old people from Pluto. They are often laughed at because they were walking heavily or funnily, or because they had big humps on their backs. The story of Uranus should be made known all over the universe.
“To receive the seal” continued Color, “we have to choose two of these elderly balls and tell them something they don’t already know.”
“It’s simple,” said Color. “I will tell them about the musical notes and about math. I do not think that they know as many things as we do, on Pluto.”
“Careful!” answered Color. “The balls from Uranus have these special powers that almost no one knows about. When they sit here, on these shelves, the big ball acts like an antenna. It catches the waves of all the radio and tv channels around the world. So the balls can hear and see everything. They learn everything that there is to be learnt. So, if you want to tell them something that was ever said on TV or on the radio, they will already know it.”
Music became silent and started to think. So we all turned to Selfi and Lumi. They always have a solution, no matter how complicated the problem was. But this time they did not know what to do either. Color also told us that if we tell the ball something that it already knows, then we have lost the challenge and we have to leave Uranus without the seal.
We kept on thinking and thinking. Music went to one of the balls on the shelves, but came quickly back. He was afraid that he would fail. It looked like none of us wanted to take the challenge and risk sending us home without the seal. If we failed, then we couldn’t return to Pluto with our heads high.
At some point Color gathered us around him and told us:
“I think that I have found the solution. I cannot promise that this is the correct solution, but we have no choice. We have to try, right? If we could look into each other’s minds, like we do when we watch TV, I am sure that we will find the necessary knowledge for this challenge. The knowledge we were born with, what others taught us or what we have learnt from our own experiences. When I think about our experiences, then I think about everything we have been through since we left Pluto. I am sure that nobody talked about that on the radio or on TV. So, I would tell the balls the valuable lessons we have learnt during our trip.”
That seemed to be a good idea. In the end it was the best idea we could come up with and we had to at least try. Then, Color went to one of the shelves, picked up a ball and told it something that amazed me.