"The Dog, The Parrot"

Families have characters as well as character.
In this small duplex the family characters were a dog and a parrot.
The brown wiener dog was a curious and cheerful sort. But one thing bothered its owners.
When the dog grew hungry, it barked.
When the dog got bored and wanted to play, it barked.
When the dog was scared, it barked.
The day when an intruder's face loomed in their front window -- the dog barked.
The little dog's owners loved it dearly -- but were never quite sure what it wanted.
Their grey parrot was a different sort entirely.
When the parrot grew hungry, it said, "More power, Scotty! I Need! More! Power!"
When the parrot got bored and wanted to play, it said, "Ten quatlus on the earthling!"
When the parrot was scared, it said, "Beam me up!"
And the day the intruder peered through their front window, it yelled, "Red Alert! Security to the bridge!"
Its owners loved their grey parrot no more than their wiener dog -- but were always sure what it wanted.
Thus, talk -- or bark.


August 20, 2011, excerpt from The Parables of Reason (Chapter 3, "Emotion's Mastery"), Copyright © 2011 by Frank H. Burton, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director, The Circle of Reason, Inc. All rights reserved.

Dedicated in admonishment of the ad hominem rhetoric and disproved, reflexive claims of the Republican Presidential candidates and U.S. Congressmen; by calling federal economic stimulus and monetary policies "treasonous," and asserting that only continuing the super-rich's income tax cuts can somehow now invigorate an economy with no demand due to rising middle-class poverty, the GOP is releasing the floodgates to a sea change in American politics: driving the U.S. business sector to realign with the founders and protectors of the middle class -- the Democratic Party.