Aphorism of the Week

Sometimes the whole world is wrong, if you know why you alone are right.

Dedicated to U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's and President Barack Obama's belated but history-making affirmation of the civil right of gay and lesbian couples to marry, and in admonishment of GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney's and prominent black pastors' assertion that one's religious doctrine allows the denial and nullification of others' marriages. The Bible proclaims legitimacy for polygamy and slavery, no less than illegitimacy for adultery, divorce and homosexuality; why then do believers feel it is right to impose some biblical rules upon non-believers, while ignoring other biblical rules for themselves?

Parable of the Week

The Proclaimer, The Achiever
Banners flapped in the breeze over the homes of two village weavers.
One weaver proclaimed to the whole village her great skill, and said she had in mind a cloak that would be as light as fog, a marvel to behold.
"As soon as I weave it, people shall come from miles away to stroke it and drape it over their shoulders, and I'll be famous throughout the land!"
The other weaver also had in mind a cloak of the finest weave and design, and too thought that people would come from miles to see and stroke it -- but she kept her silence, for, after all, she'd done nothing as yet.
The day soon came when the first weaver, swamped by the priorities of daily existence, and shunning the demands of her own dream, decided to continue loudly proclaiming her potential greatness, while postponing its birth for yet another year.
But on this same day, the other weaver, bursting with her secret dream, murmured, "Ah, to hell with busy work!"
She threw off her job, ate like a beggar, and wove.
With all her spirit, she wove the warp and weft of her soul.
And soon thereafter came the day when the first weaver gazed, dumbfounded, at a robe only she thought she could make, yet never had -- carried on the shoulders of the second weaver, who in turn was carried on the shoulders of all the villagers in celebration.
Thus, your ideas are not creations -- to be real, they must really be.

May 12, 2012, excerpt from The Parables of Reason (Chapter 3, "Emotion's Mastery"), ©2007-2012 by Frank H. Burton, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director, The Circle of Reason. All rights reserved.

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The Panda, The Roach
Zoo life became the most beautiful animal on Earth -- the Panda, who with a single coy glance melted the heart of any who chanced upon him; who with one tumbling pratfall made people burst into laughter and joy.
Yet deep in the rocks of the zoo enclosure also lived the ugliest animal on Earth -- the Roach, who by crawling onto the rocks to sun himself caused children and mothers to scream in distress; who by unfurling his buzzing wings and dangling abdomen made people burst into a dead run.
One day, the Panda came up to sniff the sunning Roach, and the Roach spread his antennae wide and said, "I wish I was like you! People would love me, and laugh when they see me! I would be so warm, and my carapace would be fuzzy, instead of shiny and smooth!"
The Panda laughed. "Hey! I was going to say the same thing!"
"What I wouldn't give to be like you!" the Panda mused, while chewing a bamboo husk. "I'd love to be able to put a scare in those people who stare at me all day! Their cooing gets on my nerves. And they laugh at me when I fall down! You never fall -- you have six legs! And I'd love to be able to fly up and away over their heads, and to eat other stuff in the dirt besides this stiff bamboo! And your carapace stays so glossy and clean, and here my fur is all yellow!"
In that moment the Panda and Roach saw each other in a new light. Both were perfect, after all - because both were the epitome of themselves.
Thus, be perfectly yourself.

May 5, 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.