Once upon a time, Conrad DeNier found himself debating Libby Learned. Both being nearly lifelong walkers upon the fraying, stretched thin, conservative / liberal tightrope, on that particular, fateful morning, their seemingly eons old War of Words promised to be as relentless and perilous, as ever. After all, neither party was ever willing to cede even one millimeter of ideological territory; NOT when it came down to the prospect of emerging victorious in the battle of the Haves vs. the Have-Nots.
However, this time around, Conrad would trot out his “new” ploy; totally unleash the ever-present spoiled brat, within. He’d hold his breath until Libby totally agreed with him. And so it was. Her closing point made, he first bleated out his counterpoint; next inhaled and puffed out his cheeks. Indeed, so enraged was he that, all the sudden, his heart totally gave out!
While unconscious, Conrad’s entire life flashed before his eyes; he even wound up seeing the light; both cosmically and cognitively speaking. However, as it had all been predestined, this would only be his Near Death Experience.
As the onrush of warmth gradually reanimated his lifeless body; returned him to consciousness, Conrad’s first sensations were of Libby’s relentless CPR. As he squinted through his eyelashes, “The Light” suddenly cross-faded to that of ordinary daylight. Now awash with feelings of utter stupefaction, to him, this had become the proverbial light bulb over the noggin moment.
In spite of their history of fierce animosity, when push came to shove, Libby had done the humane thing; had actually saved his very life! Seeing how she had been willing to set aside her own differences, he could not help but wonder. Could he not do the same? He even began to question the illogical nature of his own ideological selfishness. Why must he always seek more ill-gotten wealth at the expense of the less fortunate? After all, the sheer enormity of what he had already accrued, to date, could even last a spendthrift ten lifetimes.
Funny how it took a deep shade of physiological blue to get him to cede his seething, red hot intransigence; to temper it with a healthy helping of newfound, true blue hued tolerance. Conrad DeNier even wound up seeing Libby Learned in an entirely new light. Indeed, he now deemed his longtime foe a newfound friend.
The multifaceted moral to our story is fundamental…
Peaceful coexistence is vital. Allow selflessness to gain the upper hand. See the light before you see The Light.
Check out these fun facts re our very own blogging community!
“Every second, close to 6 (the actual figure is 5.7) new posts are published on WordPress.com blogs. That averages out to 342 posts per minute. Just above 20,000 per day. And a grand total of 7.49 million annually.”
Now, just imagine how easy it would be for an author’s work to get lost in that blizzard of blogs. Well… most of us don’t even have to imagine.
The music world has dealt with similar issues, i.e. songs that aren’t getting the attention they deserve; e.g., 13 years ago, Pearl Jam packaged their musical rarities and B-sides into a double CD titled “Lost Dogs” (EK 90778 & EK 90779 ©2003).
And just as PJ did… I now package my postings into this “Lost Dogs” Blog.
That said, my main topic this day is not music. That’s because on Tuesday Nights @6 p.m. the weekly, WordPress Party blows the roof off the blogosphere! Folks, this bash is BYOB… Bring Your Own Blogs… and when I ring that front door doorbell with my elbow, that means I’m not coming to this blow out empty handed.
Hopefully my ideas will go to your head / get a good buzz going… with no hangover in the morning… that I guarantee! Nope… no “hair of the dog that bit you” home remedies will be needed! Keeping all of that in mind… maybe you’ll help unbury / dig out a few of my “Lost Dogs” Blogs? Perhaps even dig what I have to say? If you wish to have your say… I can dig that, too… my comment boxes are standing by… mostly empty.
Bullying: Gateway “Drug” To Terrorism
A Tale Of Two Timelines (Part I)
The Sect, Sex and Skin We’re In
“Dirty” Limericks re Donald Trump
Going To California… in my mind (Pt. 1)
Once upon a time, there lived a brash, young Robin, who lived to assert his territorial dominance. That innate disposition was put to the test one sunny, mild, spring morning. As he perched on a budding lilac branch, swaying in the gentle breeze, he happened to notice another robin, also sitting on a nearby, budding lilac branch.
Flapping his wings and speaking in (what else?) fluent robin, he angrily tweeted, “How dare you invade my territory!” But the other bird simply appeared to silently mock his threatening gestures; in no other way did he respond to his scolding. So fueled by his aggression, Robin swooped in to make “the kill” never once noticing how he was attacking his own reflection in a garage windowpane.
In an attempt to end the bitter hostility, a Human came rushing out of his house, arms waving in the air. The Robin flew away, albeit, his retreat only momentary. As soon as the Human went back inside, the fierce battle of the birds, mind you, one real, one phantom, resumed; and then raged on and on for many, many days to follow.
In dismay, the Human watched further. He took no joy in witnessing this senseless war. Being a proponent of non-violence, he did not even want to see this Robin harmed or dead. No, the knee-jerk military style reaction of whipping out a firearm and blowing this bird’s head off, was NOT an option. Nor was the do nothing approach, for that would either result in that combative bird knocking himself out, or doing even greater bodily injury, should that windowpane shatter.
The Human, shaking his head glumly side to side, now drew parallels to this own species. Was not territoriality what fueled acrimonious wars throughout the pathetic history of the human race? Was not that Robin now facing the same horrors of war, namely, pointless destruction, injury and death?
And even more disturbing a thought; had not that Robin gone to war based on totally flawed reasoning? After all, there was no real enemy robin, ergo, there was no real threat to this Robin’s territory, in the first place.
With the wisdom of an astute diplomat, the Human, once again, ventured forth into the great outdoors, this time with a hammer in one hand, a large burlap bag draped over his arm and six golden nails in his shirt pocket. As soon as he held the thick brown fabric in place to cover the garage window and then nailed it up securely, the phantom robin was banished from the neighborhood, peace returned and everyone lived happily ever after.
The moral to this story is twofold:
Brains not brawn make for a lasting Peace!
And…
Always look carefully before you rush to war… you might just be your own worst enemy!
I originally blogged “A Parable” on MySpace… posting date: Tuesday, September 12, 2006. On this day, I only applied a light coat of polish… so what you just read is 99 percent verbatim to what had hit the www… so long ago.
My motivation for writing this story had been twofold.
1. As a young boy I had actually watched a robin repeatedly attacking the window of my family’s garage.
2. Birdbrain George W. Bush’s similar behavior. He, too, had needlessly, pointlessly gone to war (with Iraq)… his basis for doing so based on the illusion / delusion of that nation possessing WMD / being a threat to America.
The MSM had a golden opportunity to nail in that “burlap fabric” to cover (or is that uncover?) W’s illusion / delusion… well… i.e., had the Fourth Estate been a team of real, investigative journalists properly doing their homework.
So… how relevant to today’s world is a nearly ten-year-old blog?
Well… as far as priorities go… keeping the peace still bottoms out the list of today’s crop of crappy, scrappy GOP POTUS candidates… the Middle East continues to reel and spin out of control from the devastation from W’s destabilizing Iraq war… Republican Senators and Representatives / Supreme Court Judges have learned nothing… I repeat… NOTHING… from their law-breaking / unruly ways and… via their roadblocks to progress… continue to preserve, protect and defend W’s failed policies… NOT the U.S. Constitution. AND… last but not least… the MSM is still not doing its job to educate Americans of this monumentally sorry state of affairs.
As proof… well… if Americans were being properly clued in… a birdbrain such as Donald Trump (a human/robin hybrid sporting Trump’s head and tweeting wildly… on Twitter?) would’ve been laughed off the stage… no… strike that… would’ve been booed off the stage long ago… and those dissenting voices would’ve been singing out… in full harmony… in our bipartisan chorus.
I did come up with a third, updated moral to “A Parable”:
Don’t be a birdbrain by voting for birdbrain Republicans.
