This charming story is based on the ‘Six Thinking Hats’ by Edward de Bono. The story shows the individual use of the hats and their effects as types of thinking. Perhaps this is just the beginning and readers will add further chapters to this story or write similar stories embodying other thinking tools and frameworks. It is my wish that we can gather a large number of stories that are suitable as ‘bed time stories’ which people can then download from the site and read to their children. Any volunteers to create some illustrations? Please send your contributions to me at edwdebono@msn.com.
A long time ago, in a beautiful village with small straw houses, something happened which I’ll tell you about. About a hundred people lived in that place . There was a bread maker, a locksmith, several miners, a teacher and many more men with different jobs. Each of them lived with his family – his wife, his children … There were younger, middle aged and older children. Some of these children liked playing near a waterfall just outside the village. Of course their parents didn’t like the idea at all because they thought this sort of fun was dangerous. Near, very near that waterfall, there were some little bushes. And right beside the bushes there were some small mushrooms. And beneath these mushrooms, lived Adao. Adao was a nice small gnome, who had a twin brother named Gabo. Adao was short and stout; so was Gabo. Adao had red hair and freckles; so did Gabo. Adao used a hat; so did Gabo. And both made their own clothes. Yes, with a small sewing machine that their mother had given them as a present just when they told her of their idea of living on their own, far from their father’s home. Adao and Gabo were identical. So much so that anyone would be confused as to who was who. Well, they were identical on the outside, not on the inside. They had a very different heart. They behaved differently. They
even behaved in almost opposite ways. Adao, for instance, was always thinking about how to help other people. Gabo, in turn, lived to have fun, and was capable of doing anything that would make him laugh, even if that behaviour got others into trouble. One night, Adao had gone to bed early, and Gabo thought of a plan to have some fun. He went to their small “thread and needle workshop”, where he and his brother had that sewing machine that their mother had given them. And once there, he started making more and more hats. He made one for each person in the village. But he only used six different colours: some hats were green as plants, others white as paper; still others, red like fire; he also made some blue as the sky, others yellow as the sun and, to end with, others black as the night. Apparently these were hats like any others, but the interesting thing about them was that they were invisible to the human eye. Only the gnomes, the fairies, the wizards, the witches and other fantasy beings could see them. But that was not all: what made them more special is that, using any of these hats, something very strange happened to anyone who was wearing it … And it was this happening that made Gabo enjoy himself so much. Once he finished making all those hats and while everyone in the village was sleeping, Gabo paid a visit to each house, and placed a hat on each inhabitant’s head. Each and every one of them was wearing a hat: the parents and the children, the grannies and also the babies. But as these hats were invisible, no one noticed. The next morning, when the villagers woke up, something very strange happened. Fermín, an adventurous boy, all of a sudden didn’t want to come out of his home. When his friends came to invite him to play, he replied: “I’m not going out; it’s very dangerous, I can fall in the river …”. Fermin’s mother didn’t understand what happened to her son as he usually was too daring and he was frequently in trouble. The usual thing was for him to invite other children to go to the dangerous waterfall … The woman’s attention turned to something else because right at that moment her neighbour, Doña Beatriz, came crying bitterly because she had burnt a cake that she was cooking for her husband. And she said: “I’m good for nothing; it’ll be better if I’m left in the woods for bears to come and eat me”. “My neighbour crying?”, thought Fermin’s mother. “She who never worries about anything?” Beatriz was such a balanced person, it even looked, sometimes, as if she didn’t have feelings. She was never seen in anguish, or sad, or happy either. It looked as if she lived with a motto: “Everything is as it should be”. But today, what was happening
to her? It looked as if her feelings of sadness were pouring out and overwhelming her. That scene was also interrupted because an explosion was heard and Fermin, his mother, and Doña Beatriz ran to the place where they thought the noise had come from. Of course they found other villagers there. Many had come to that place, shocked, trying to find out what had happened. There they found Arturo. Arturo was known to all as a quiet, shy and lonely boy. He didn’t seem to take an interest in anything that was happening around him. But today there was no trace of that personality. All of a sudden he had felt a curiosity to learn about the world and had started experimenting up to the point of causing an explosion. Arturo was covered in ashes, to such an extent that some didn’t recognise him at first. One thing was certain: he was seen to have an urge to go on investigating more and more … He didn’t look worried about the mess he had created. Very near him was Rodrigo, his brother, a usually distracted and forgetful boy. Some said Rodrigo could even forget his own name. But not that day. There he was, near his brother, uttering the names of each and every one of the inhabitants of the village, and their birthdays, and then publicising the favourite dish of each one and also their favourite colour. Nobody could explain what was happening. It was simply obvious that something was happening. If they had paid a little more attention, maybe they would have discovered Gabo, behind the bushes, trying not to show he was laughing. Adao immediately knew what was happening. He could see the hats because they were not invisible to him. And he guessed at once that his brother was involved in the trouble. Adao knew very well how to help people. If they only knew they were wearing hats! Then they would know they could take them off. But Adao knew it was not easy for people to notice this, as people seldom see themselves. Adao thought he should act but didn’t want to be seen by humans, so he decided to wait until nighttime. He stayed around in order to avoid further problems. Close to six o’clock in the afternoon, some miners were heard returning home, after a long day at work in the mine. There were Fermin’s father and Doña Beatriz’s husband. They came along singing happily and chatting about how wonderful it was to work in the mine … Their wives couldn’t believe what they were hearing as they had always complained about how dangerous and unpleasant it was to work there. Late at night, when everyone was sleeping, Adao went into each of the houses in the village. Whispering in each person’s ear, he said to each: “You are wearing a hat – you must realise that”. The next morning, when they woke up, before saying “Good morning”, they were all repeating “you’re wearing a hat – you must realise that”. Even the babies – well, they couldn’t speak, but they moved their little heads and half-sung a tune. Several people joined together in the central square of the village and, instead of saluting each other, they said at the same time: “you’re wearing a hat – you must realise that”. Just then, they put their hands on their heads and, at that very instant, the hats took shape and colour. People noticed each of the hats had something written on them: on the white hats the word “Information” was written. Rodrigo and many other villagers were wearing white hats. Arturo and other people were wearing a green hat with the word “Creativity” on it. The black hats said “Problems” and, for sure, Fermin had a hat of this colour. Fermin’s mother had a blue hat with the name “Observer” on it. Her neighbour and other people were wearing a hat on which you could read “Emotion” and which was red. The miners and others had a yellow hat with the word “Optimistic” written on the front. Fermin’s mother suggested they could all swap hats among themselves, but she decided to keep the blue one, in order to observe the others. Straight away it became obvious that people changed their behaviour as if controlled by the word on each hat. After making these changes several more times, they all decided on something important which changed their lives for ever. Right there and then, they made a huge coloured hat of clay . Then, with a hammer and a chisel they wrote something on a stone, which they left at the foot of such a monumental sculpture. On the stone you could read the following: _If you want to understand your neighbour, you should wear his hat._
_And if you want to solve conflicts, you should control the hats._ Since that day the villagers lived together happily, understanding each other and with the certainty that any situation can be understood if you look at it from different points of view.
It’s been a few months since I have been well enough to taking the kids out playing on the beach, so this bank holiday weekend has been pretty special. We have played ball games every day on our local beach and today we went into Blackpool early (never go into Blackpool late on a bank holiday unless you like the “party atmosphere” – ie drunken louts!). Anyway early on a sunny day is great fun. The girls spent an hour in the amusements and we had a good root round the shops and good fun on the beach.
On Saturday I started to pull up all of the strawberry plants that had rooted from runners last year. I ended up with several hundred plants in a big heap. I decided that it would be a good idea to give them away, but my wife though tno one would be interested. I took this as a bit of a challenge, I am one of those people who likes to think the best of others (which is an extension of having a positive outlook) my wife in contrast always expects things to go wrong and tends to distrust those she doesn’t know. Anyway I bagged the plants up – 15 plants to a bag – and to make the challenge more interesting decided to give the plants away but allow for donations.
