********@excite.com wrote...

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Which area is your meta4 useful in? Enuresis...Background : This metaphorical story was created for a 10 year old boy with a persistent problem with night enuresis. The boy's mother was very frustrated with him, and frequently became annoyed at him after he wet his sheets. The boy had no physiological problems and was able to eliminate well during the day at school. He was understandably embarrassed by this problem, and he began to avoid his friends, and rarely talked about it. His interests in fishing and dogs were incorporated into the metaphor.

Which country? USA

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The Gatekeeper.

Once upon a time, there was a town on the banks of a large river. The towns people had built a large electric power dam on the river to help them power all of their lights, TVs, radios, and video games. About 3 years after they had built the dam, the towns people hired Matt, to help make sure that the dam was always working properly.

Now... the dam was equipped with gates to hold back the flow of the water. And when the gates were open, water flowed freely through the dam. When they were closed, no water was able to pass. Their operation is controlled by a computer controlled instrument panel. It was Matt's job to operate the panel.. control the flow of the water so that it wouldn't overflow and flood the town on the river banks.

Matt did a very good job of controlling the dam during the day. He kept a close eye on the water level on the one side of the dam, so he sensed exactly when to release the gate and allow it to flow out. He prided himself on how well he controlled it. All the townspeople agreed that he was very good at knowing when to release the water and when not to.

Until one night.... a huge storm blew across the river, and it started to rain heavily. While Matt slept, it rained even more. And by accident... some of the water began to flow over the dam. The next morning Matt heard a knock at his door. It was a towns person. She was angry at him for something. She held up some books that were dripping. "Look at my things, they are ruined", she shouted. Matt realised that it must have happened during the night. Then he looked around his own house, and some of his things were wet too. Oh no, he thought, I forgot to open the gates. He apologized and said it wouldn't happen again.

That day he did a great job of operating the dam. But he wondered how many towns people knew about his mistake that night. He was very embarrassed when he saw others on the street. He didn't look them in the eye, because he was afraid they knew about the accident. I will try to do better he thought.

That night he thought to himself it won't happen again. He fell asleep... and the next morning he woke again when someone was knocking on his door. It was the same lady. "You ruined my things!" she shouted. She held up her a chair that was wet. He apologized and said he would dry it off. So he grabbed a towel and dried it off and wondered why it had happened again. He was very embarrassed. He didn't want to go to town because he was afraid everyone would know about what happened. So instead he decided to play a game with his pet dog, Sparky. Sparky doesn't care that I made a mistake, he thought. That night he fell asleep and the next morning he woke up and it had happened again.

Now the towns people were getting more angry with him, even though he did a very good job of operating . Matt felt terrible... he began to think that maybe he wasn't a good dam operator. He started to avoid going to the town to play with friends, he even stopped playing with Sparky.

Matt was so sad he started to cry. He thought all the towns people disliked him. He walked onto the dam and stared into the water. It was then he noticed that an old fisherman was there. He had seen the fisherman before on the dam fishing, many times.

The fisherman noticed Matt's sad expression and asked him what was wrong. Matt almost told him but then thought that the fisherman might not like him because he was not operating his dam very well. So instead he said, "nothings wrong". Now the fisherman man was very wise and had experiencing fishing on all kinds of land, wetlands, and dry land. And he had seen many dams. Dams and bridges were his favorite spots to fish, because he could fish and have fun in deep water while staying dry.

He told Matt about one bridge that he especially liked, it was the 'draw bridge'. Do you know what a draw bridge does? Matt knew that it was a bridge that could raise and lower, allowing ships to pass underneath of it. Well you also know that the bridge operator must tell the bridge when to raise and when to lower. Of course, Matt said. The fisherman said that one early morning, when it was still dark, he was out fishing on a draw bridge when it got stuck in the open position.

Instead of following the operators directions, the boats and ships just passed through without stopping. The operator got very frustrated, and all the people heading for work got frustrated too, because they had to wait in a long line of cars waiting to cross the bridge. The bridge operator managed to get it unstuck so that he could close it again. That very day when no one else was around, the bridge operator sat down at his control panel and practiced opening and closing the bridge, so that it would work smoothly all the time. He also installed a signal to let him know if a ship was coming. He also decided when was the best time to let the ships pass underneath, so no drivers would get mad at him. Pretty soon he got the nick-name of 'The Gatekeeper' because he knew exactly when to do what, and that made everyone very happy, the ship owners, and the drivers, and himself.

The fisherman gave Matt a pat on the back and said that he was sure that he could solve whatever problem he was having. Because he was the expert on his dam and he knows how to control the gates. He can sense when the dam is getting full.

Later that day, Matt sat at his control panel, and thought about what the fisherman had said. Then suddenly he thought "I really should put an alarm on the control panel so it can signal me when to open the flood gates". Then he thought of another solution, and another.

He tried them all until he found the one that worked best. He went to sleep that night very hopeful.

During the night his signal went off, he got up out of bed and opened the gates.. just a little... then went back to bed. The next morning there was a knock at his door. Oh no, he thought.... It was the lady. As soon as Matt openly the door she gave him a big hug. All my things are dry! she exclaimed.

Matt smiled, he had figured out that he had been missing the signals before. But now he knew how the gates could be controlled at night, and he got better and better at it. He sometimes even practiced opening and closing the gates during the day when no one else was around, so he could recognize the signals even better. He got better and better... operating the dam both at day and night... and pretty soon all the towns people held a parade in Matt's honor, as the dam's best operator.

After the parade, he was on the way home, when he saw a little boy, who was crying.... sitting beside a fence. What's wrong? Matt asked. "I can't get my ball... it flew over the fence and the gate is stuck closed". The boy stood up and shoved and shoved on the fence -- it didn't budge.

Matt slowly looked at the gate... and then over the fence at the ball. He then applied a little pressure to it, in just the right spot.... and to the boy's surprise... the gate swung open. "Wow how did you do that" ? the boy asked.

I just know how to handle gates, I guess...Matt said. "Wow you really do, that’s great, you really are a gate keeper". .........Yes I am, Matt thought, and he smiled and went on his way.

Ed's note: Thanks anonymous!! A great story!