Aphorism of the Week

Get out of your own way. -- via Samuel L. Jackson.

Dedicated to the willingness of retiring GOP Senator Olympia Snow (R-ME) to cross the aisle and compromise; and in admonishment of Congress' inability to emulate her by working together to strengthen the U.S. economy, rather than debating the right of women to contraceptive healthcare.

Parable of the Week

The Feather, The Wing
House sparrows spent their days in search of seeds to fill their busy bellies.
One sparrow spread his smooth, brown wings and flitted from tree to tree -- his masked face and black pearl eyes espying the backyards below him.
But the other sparrow hopped along the ground, wings tucked, in search of his food.
The first sparrow, observing the second, called down, "Hey! Hey! Hey, you!"
"Why don't you spread your wings and fly, instead of hopping on your claws?"
The second sparrow looked up at him and said, "Hey you, too! Here's why!"
And the second bird opened his wings to reveal a set of sorry-looking, ruffled feathers.
So misaligned were they, that the wing they fashioned wasn't sturdy enough in catching the air to easily lift a fat -- or even so much as a thin -- sparrow.
"I can barely reach the lowest tree branches with these feathers," the second sparrow sighed. "They just don't fit right."
He refolded his ragged wing-feathers, shrugged his little, stooped sparrow shoulders, and cocked his head.
"So, I live under the bushes and hop to my food."
Thus, make sure each of your wing-feathers fit together, or you will not soar.

March 3, 2012, excerpt from The Parables of Reason (Chapter 2, "Assumption's Denial"), ©2007-2012 by Frank H. Burton, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director, The Circle of Reason. All rights reserved.