Aphorism of the Week

Most people hold too many certainties and too few viewpoints.

Dedicated in supplication to the U.S. GOP Presidential candidades in advance of the Michigan primaries, to consider that the federal government has a role to play in encouraging economic progress to seek new directions -- a lesson now learned by the Detroit auto industry.

Parable of the Week

The Forest, The Prairie
Ere the passing of the Ice Age thirty thousand years before, the tribe had lived in the great forest.
A young warrior of the tribe often leapt upon the bare back of his appaloosa to explore the meandering rivers, valleys and hills of the forest.
He felt the rough, smooth or flaking bark -- and peered at the unique lobes and spikes on the leaves -- of uncounted trees, all well-met friends.
Then, one day, roaming further than ever he had before into the dim forest undergrowth, he saw, from the east, daylight penetrate the trunks of the entire forest -- and was afraid.
Slowly, he nudged his horse eastward.
The great arches of the trees slowly separated, no longer meeting in the sky to make a bower over his head, but only reaching for each other like parted lovers.
Onward the warrior went, until, far ahead, he saw the trees simply stop -- and beyond, brilliant daylight.
So did the warrior come to the eastern edge of the great forest.
He stopped under the last of the trees, and, from their shade, gazed out at a sight he'd never before seen, nor ever imagined.
A golden prairie, vast and unending.
And a robin's-egg sky, vaulting far above the pale daylight moon.
The young warrior saw the true measure of his little forest, and his little life, and laughed while he cried.
Then, with a leap of his heart and a stroke upon the tossing mane of his appaloosa, he galloped into the Golden.
Thus, the mind is distracted by its own clutter -- to see far, leave it behind.

February 25, 2012, excerpt from The Parables of Reason (Chapter 1, "Reality's Acceptance"), ©2007-2012 by Frank H. Burton, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director, The Circle of Reason. All rights reserved.