Aphorism of the Week

We have conquered that which is without -- now we must conquer that which is within.

Dedicated in admonishment of the Obama and past administrations' oversight of its Veterans Affairs Disability Claims Office, which unfairly delayed injured veterans' disability compensation claims; its Internal Revenue Service Determinations Unit, which unfairly investigated the tax exempt status of conservative political non-profits; and its Justice Department, which unfairly investigated the phone records of the Associated Press.

Parable of the Week

The Dishonorable, The Honorable
Poverty and integrity was the cursed gift of their parents' fallible guidance and infallible love.
Yet the brothers' gift was soon broken.
A clumsy merchant on a high balcony spilled a pot of silver coins over their very heads.
One brother chased down most of the coins, battling off as many grabbing thieves as he could, and, hailing the frantic merchant from below, returned to him all that he'd collected.
The merchant gave him in return his effusive thanks, but no more.
Yet this brother's integrity remained of one piece that day.
What stood unbroken in him reflected the light of others who came his way, and so did his integrity spread forth among men.
Yet the other brother, on that fateful day, also saw the silver coins fall like rain from the balcony, and also dove to collect them, but returned not a single one.
Instead, with a muffled gasp of pain, he turned from the gathering crowd, from the merchant and from his own brother -- and slipped the pile of silver coins he had scooped up into his coat pocket. Then, with the quickest of the thieves, the second brother stole away, never glancing back into his brother's or the merchant's eyes.
This brother's integrity fractured in two that day.
Later, lying about the source of his new horses and saddles, then of his new young bull, then of his stocks of cured meats and fine wines, his integrity fractured into a thousand shards.
He found himself not one person whole, but become hundreds of persons -- each mirroring a false expectation, a fabricated past, a risen-again excuse, to each new traveler who'd heard and wondered about the source of his sudden wealth.
So did the dishonest brother lose, with his integrity, his soul -- as its fragmented shards were ground to dust beneath the feet of all other men.
Thus, integrity is the soul's mirror of reality -- do not break it.

May 18, 2008, excerpt from The Parables of Reason © 2007-2013 (Chapter 1, "Reality's Acceptance"), by Frank H. Burton, Executive Director, The Circle of Reason.

Aphorism of the Week

Immorality is to coerce a sapient.

Dedicated to the Minnesota State Legislature, Minnesotans United For All Families lobbyists, and forward-thinking Minnesotans who codified into law the equal human right of all loving couples to be married, regardless of their biologically-determined sexual orientation or identity; and dedicated in admonition of all fundamentalist religions' attempts, whether today or a half-century ago, to impose theocracies that guarantee discrimination in place of representative governments that guarantee equal rights.

Parable of the Week

The Sand, The Stone
Two great cathedrals were built, one upon stone, the other upon sand.
The first cathedral stood for all time, a monument to its architects and masons, and to their indomitable spirit.
Yet the second cathedral, as beautiful and magnificent a monument to its builders as the first, began within a few short years to tilt, and then to settle into the sand.
As the decades and centuries flew by, it rocked back and forth, settling deeper and deeper, the sands slowly pouring against, shattering and running through its stained glass windows and arched doorways.
So did this cathedral subside under the bone-white sands of time, until, one day, the very tip of its tallest, most wondrous spire was all that still defied its sandy grave -- and none came to marvel, but only to regret.
Thus, even the most beautiful belief comes to naught if it stands not on solid earth.

May 11, 2013, excerpt from The Parables of Reason © 2007-2013 (Chapter 2, "Assumption's Denial"), by Frank H. Burton, Executive Director, The Circle of Reason.

-----

Aphorism of the Week

Labor without progress is slavery.

Dedicated to Jason Collins, the first active NBA player to come out as gay; and to NFL football player Chris Kluwe, who lost his job as Vikings punter after months of speaking out as a straight man for equal marriage rights for the LGBT community.

Parable of the Week

The Keeper, The Caged
Two men lived in cages.
The first man was grey and toothless. Years before, his jailers had given him a set of keys to his prison.
Yet he had so come to fear the world outside, that he kept his keys to freedom in the pocket of his prison garb, too afraid to even handle them.
Thus was the first man the keeper of his own cage.
The second man was as ancient as bones.
Yet since his youth he'd railed against his imprisonment, considered it unjust, and never ceased plotting ways to break out of his cage.
He sought, above all else, to carve a key to his prison, and dreamed of great embarkations, for that day when freedom alighted.
Thus was the second man less caged than the first -- for he did not fear freedom, and his cage was not of his own making.
Thus, fear of change is a prison. Break out.

May 4, 2013, excerpt from The Parables of Reason © 2007-2013 (Chapter 3, "Emotion's Mastery"), by Frank H. Burton, Executive Director, The Circle of Reason.

Aphorism of the Week

Hell has two doors -- a way in, and a way out.

Dedicated in retrospective accolade to PEPFAR, former President George W. Bush's AIDS- and malaria- prevention initiative that saved 7 million lives in Africa.

Parable of the Week

The Rabbit, The Frog
Underneath a highway culvert lived a Rabbit and a Frog.
Every day cars rushed by overhead like the rush of the culvert's creek after a long rain. But at night the highway was often calm.
One such night, in black, starry quiet, the Rabbit and the Frog hopped up the gravel embankment to the middle of the blacktop, and sat watching falling stars.
The Frog croaked loud and long for a mate in the woods beyond the culvert, while the Rabbit nuzzled the air.
Suddenly a distant pair of stars low on the horizon loomed large and bore down on them with a deafening roar.
"Ruck...Truck!" erupted the Frog, and then, pushing off with his huge legs, leapt far through the air, a goggle-eyed green and white flash in the onrushing headlights of the 18-wheeler.
As he landed in the weeds and gravel beside the highway, the Frog looked back and saw his friend, ears rigid and staring into the headlights, frozen with fear and indecision.
"Ruckit...Buck it!" the Frog yelled.
But, unmoving to his end, the Rabbit was crushed under the wheels.
Thus, the first step is the easiest one not to take.

April 27, 2013, excerpt from The Parables of Reason (Chapter 3, "Emotion's Mastery"), Copyright © 2007-2013 by Frank H. Burton, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director, The Circle of Reason. All rights reserved.

-----

Aphorism of the Week

Principles and facts are essential -- but the most essential are principles about facts.

Dedicated in retrospective admonishment of the Invasion of Iraq, former President George W. Bush's initiative to depose Saddam Hussein that killed over 100,000.

Parable of the Week

The Prevailing Wisdom, The True Wisdom
Autumn colored their debate.
The village historian stood, floppy wool hat on his head and back bent from many years hunched over old almanacs, and proclaimed in his loudest voice, "There is no risk tonight to our grapes! Not in fifty years have we had a freezing sleet this early in autumn. The prevailing wisdom says that this chill wind will pass with no harm!"
"No harm!"
The crowd loudly applauded the old man -- for surely he knew best, having the longest memory of what had transpired in the village long years past.
Then a young vintner stood, his hat in his hand, and said, "Sirs, the prevailing wisdom is clear, but perhaps true wisdom would lie in us preparing the fires and fans tonight, to keep the sleet off our crus should it fall nonetheless."
The crowd hooted and catcalled, and he placed his hat on his head, yanked down its cap, and walked off toward his vineyard.
But a few other young men, all with new vineyards like him, followed him out of town, and said, "Maybe we are fools, but we shall do as you advise! Better a sleepless night and sore backs from making the fires to keep our grapes warm, than no money or wine for a year!"
That night, while the village slept, the sleet came suddenly upon the vineyards, and only the young vintners' fires and fans protected their harvests.
That year, the young vintners grew rich, as wine was rare.
Thus, prevailing wisdom is often not true wisdom.

April 20, 2013, excerpt from The Parables of Reason (Chapter 2, "Assumption's Denial"), Copyright © 2007-2013 by Frank H. Burton, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director, The Circle of Reason. All rights reserved.

Aphorism of the Week

The impossible just takes a little longer. -- via Larry Brown

Dedicated to the Stanford creators of CLARITY technology for immunostaining and imaging the whole neurocircuitry of intact fixed brains by making them transparent through acrylamide gel immobilization.

Parable of the Week

The Orchid, The Dandelion
Growing in a mountain rainforest were an Orchid and a Dandelion.
Both brilliant yellow, the Orchid meandered along a hedge, while the Dandelion bloomed from emerald grass.
But wounds torn in the land by the hand of Man caused a cold, dry wind to blow over the rainforest.
The Orchid dwindled and died, its dappled beauty lost to all sight.
But the Dandelion had dug a foot-root deep into the soil's groundwater, and sprouted puffballs to waft its seeds, each hanging from a tiny umbrella, toward the four corners of the Earth.
So it is that orchids are seen only in hothouses, protected from the elements -- while dandelions sprout in your yard.
Thus, tenacity, hardiness and flexibility make success likelier.

April 13, 2013, excerpt from The Parables of Reason (Chapter 1, "Reality's Acceptance"), Copyright © 2007-2013 by Frank H. Burton, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director, The Circle of Reason. All rights reserved.

Aphorism of the Week

Study both sides of the coin -- feel both edges of the sword.

Dedicated in supplication to the U.S. Congress to use their votes to represent the People, who seek universal background checks for gun sales, and not to merely salve their political careers with yet another impasse permitting the irrational and the ill to mass-murder on no more than a whim.

Parable of the Week

The Effort, The Work
Fallow, rebelliously denuded, the cornfield lounged underfoot.
As the farmer and her daughter steered the plow behind their mare, the blade clanged on a large, granite stone buried in the earth, heaved up by last winter's frost.
"Oh, dear!" said the farmer. "Daughter, I'm taking a milk break for a while. You're still fresh. Why don't you dig up and roll that stone over to the side of the field?"
The daughter, scraping away dirt from the stone with her foot, cringed and frowned. "It's huge! How am I supposed to move it?"
The farmer woman reached over to lightly pinch her girl's biceps. "With these, darling."
And off she rode the mare back to the farmhouse, for a tall, cold glass of milk, as her child glared at her sweat-stained back with exasperation.
Later that morning, the farmer returned to check on her daughter. As she approached the plow, she saw her child laid out flat on her back, hat perched over face, with pools of sweat long since spread through her shirt and shorts -- and the stone, sitting in the same spot as when she left.
"Why isn't the stone moved?" the farmer asked.
Her daughter looked out from beneath her hat, and said with quiet disdain, "Because it was too damn heavy, mother!"
She stood up on her spindly legs, now streaked with dirt.
"I worked as hard as I could on that rock! You can't blame me!"
But her mother smiled gently, and, caressing the disheveled strands of hair from her beloved child's face, told her one of the greatest, and most unpleasant, truths of life.
"Daughter, great effort or no, it wasn't work -- here the stone still sits."
Thus, it isn't work unless the stone moves.

April 6, 2013, excerpt from The Parables of Reason (Chapter 2, "Assumption's Denial"), Copyright © 2007-2013 by Frank H. Burton, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director, The Circle of Reason. All rights reserved.