Aphorism of the Week: Life requires no other to justify itself.

Dedicated to the U.S. citizens of Minnesota, Washington, Maryland and Maine voting down Constitutional bans against, or voting for laws permitting, same-sex marriage; and in admonishment of evangelical religious legislators in those U.S. states, as well as in the country of Uganda, seeking to enshrine legal prejudice against -- and in Uganda's case, criminalization with life imprisonment for -- loving same-sex couples, against the foundational humane principle of freedom of religion. The Circle of Reason implores all reasoning Ugandans to choose, as did the people of the U.S., to reject as immoral anti-LGBT laws, and to lead their country from the darkness of religious dogma.

Parable of the Week: The Grey Squirrels, The Colored Squirrels
By a bubbling creek meandered a lush backyard garden.
In this garden dwelled not only birds, garden snakes, toads and worms, but also grey squirrels.
The biggest and most well-fed of the animals, they were lords of the yard -- where all but the angriest of crows fled from them, once they charged to hoard nuts and seeds. Their bright white bellies gleamed in the afternoon sun when they sat up to regard their domain.
But when they crouched back down, their grey tops were somewhat dreary to look upon.
Then one day a motley crew of new squirrels came to the garden. They scampered onto a branch and stood tall for all to see: A small red squirrel; a pure black squirrel; a fawn-colored squirrel; and a pure white squirrel.
Each was much smaller than the fat grey squirrels, and so were no match for them in hoarding nuts and seeds.
But they were fast, and so colorful!
When they scampered around the trees and grass, playing tag with the grey squirrels, in the garden a rainbow danced.
And the days were no longer as dreary to look upon.
Thus, sameness dulls the spirit's palate, while diversity and its combinations are the spice of life. -- via Star Trek

November 24, 2012, excerpt from The Parables of Reason (Chapter 1, "Reality's Acceptance"), Copyright © 2007-2012 by Frank H. Burton, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director, The Circle of Reason. All rights reserved.

-----

Aphorism of the Week: Death can consecrate a cause -- but cannot make it right.

Dedicated in supplication to Gaza's Palestinian leaders and citizens, to recognize the immorality of firing rockets into Israel; and to call for tolerance, renouncing their goal to destroy their neighbor. As is happening in the West Bank, offering an open hand to Israel will soon lead to a new Palestine, one whose generations will grow in wealth and security, and live in friendship with their Israeli brethren.

Parable of the Week: The Acorn, The Oak
An acorn lay rotting.
Carried far away from its mother-tree by an overly busy squirrel, it was abandoned in the black earth.
For the squirrel, being not so smart, forgot where he'd buried it -- and so the acorn was consigned to molder in its grave for all time, lost to memory or kindly regard.
Yet the following year, from the flesh of the acorn grew the smallest of shoots.
It fought for the light of the sun, pushed through dead leaves and blades of grass, and swelled into the tiniest of plants.
Over the years, the plant fought to live, persisting without cease or rest, and grew.
And grew.
So, in the fullness of time, arose the mightiest Oak that ever existed -- from a forgotten and discarded shred of another's callous feast.
Thus, to transform into what will be, what is must pass away.

November 17, 2012, excerpt from The Parables of Reason (Chapter 3, "Emotion's Mastery"), Copyright © 2007-2012 by Frank H. Burton, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director, The Circle of Reason. All rights reserved.

-----

Aphorism of the Week: If you stare straight ahead, you have narrow vision.

Dedicated to the re-emergence of moderate GOP stances in the wake of the U.S. 2012 Election; and in admonishment of the "ultra-conservative media machine" for waving a red cape of illusory polls and political effrontery, that led the Grand Old Party into becoming a bullish caricature of a responsible political party.

Parable of the Week: The Flat World, The Round World
A voice in a faceless crowd proclaimed, "The World is flat!"
The people all chattered, "Of course he's right! We can see the edge of the World -- it's right over there!" And they pointed to the far horizon of the sea, where the red sun flashed green ere vanishing beneath the waters.
But a second man cried, "Wait! The edge looks so close! How can we sail for days upon days into the West, and lose sight of the mountains of our home, if the World is flat? Might not the World actually be round?"
And the people catcalled and hurled rotten fruits and cabbages at him.
"It's flat! Just look at the horizon!" they jeered.
Yet the second man believed that perhaps the World was round, but also very large -- and so just seemed flat, as his bald pate might seem to a tiny louse.
So he fashioned a telescope, using a long hearing-aid tube and two pieces of polished glass.
Then every morning he sat on the dock and stared at the horizon with his scope, pausing only to wipe its lenses free of salt-spray, and to gaze fiercely at passersby who cajoled him.
But then one afternoon, he startled and darted to his feet, one hand still holding the telescope to a gawking eye.
Through its lenses he could see a crow's nest - only a crow's nest -- rising slowly above the waters, its red and white flag flapping on the tall mast.
"Look!" he pointed to the horizon and cried to a small crowd of passersby, "Look! The mast of a galleon rises from the sea, but with no galleon yet seen beneath it! The World is not flat -- it is round! Round!"
A large rotten cabbage smashed into his beaming face, and his telescope dropped into the sea.
Thus, the whole world can still be wrong.

November 10, 2012, excerpt from The Parables of Reason (Chapter 2, "Assumption's Denial"), Copyright © 2007-2012 by Frank H. Burton, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director, The Circle of Reason. All rights reserved.

-----

Aphorism of the Week: Now is the time.

Dedicated to the U.S. voter -- whose hand will write the fate of the country.

Parable of the Week: The Act, The Consequence
In a shantytown held fast like a barnacle on the hull of a city sailing for a far horizon, two boys squatted on the stoop of a tin shack.
Dealers approached them offering hashish.
The first boy rose from the stoop, bought a bag of weed, placed it in his jacket pocket, and trotted home to smoke it.
His dealer counted his money, then ordered more hashish from his supplier -- who, in the crossfire of a gunfight with competing suppliers, shot a young student.
A young student who one day would have designed an economical solar water-purifier, saving millions from dysentery.
The second boy remained sitting on the stoop, and refused to buy hashish.
The second dealer, growing angry, slapped the boy and chased him through the teeming alleys -- but fell short on his sales that day, and ordered nothing from his supplier.
That supplier was ignored during a later turf battle -- and a girl on the street was saved from being shot.
A girl whose granddaughter would one day lead a continent to outlaw land mines.
Thus, the world can rise or fall with the lifting of one finger.

November 3, 2012, excerpt from The Parables of Reason (Chapter 1, "Reality's Acceptance"), Copyright © 2007-2012 by Frank H. Burton, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director, The Circle of Reason. All rights reserved.

-----

Aphorism of the Week: Think on it -- then think again.

Dedicated to the U.S. Presidential Election's "Fact Checkers," and in supplication to the American voter to listen to them; and dedicated in admonishment of Governor Mitt Romney's unprecedented reliance on distorting facts to con voters who deserve to know the full truth about the GOP Party's policies.

Parable of the Week: The Stormy Day, The Sunny Day
Bent did their leaders become from the mantle of power.
They went before the people and proclaimed, "A great storm approaches! It threatens our lives and happiness!"
Pounding their lecterns and grasping their microphones, they cried, "We are mobilizing our army, to patrol the streets, suppress rioting, and protect the citizens of our land."
"We declare martial law!"
The people were stunned.
Many peered into the skies, but saw only a clear and calm horizon -- and newspaper forecasts had told only of bright, sunny skies, not storm-whipped devastation.
A few asked aloud, "Where are the storms?" But they were beaten and carried off in trucks by armed soldiers.
The newspapers and television channels at first declared no evidence for a storm. But the army poured money into the pockets of their owners, and pushed guns into the faces of others. Soon every news article and nightly broadcast proclaimed catastrophe was to rain from the sky.
Most of the people scuttled quickly from their homes to their cars, and from their cars to their workplaces, and stared upward at the clear blue skies, always searching.
But others -- a very few -- stared at the armed guards on the streets, and then stared upward at the televised faces of their great leaders, always searching.
Until these very few grew into a multitude...
And then, a storm.
Thus, black is not white -- no matter who says it is.

October 27, 2012, excerpt from The Parables of Reason (Chapter 1, "Reality's Acceptance"), Copyright © 2007-2012 by Frank H. Burton, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director, The Circle of Reason. All rights reserved.

Aphorism of the Week

Facts are stone walls; yet not of a cell, but a maze.

Dedicated in supplication to the Chinese Politburo to permit the free travel of dissident Chen Guangcheng -- another step toward China's maturation into a truly honorable country and worthy world power.

Parable of the Week

The Caterpillar, The Butterfly
It was an insect who had no wings.
It longed to fly, like other beautiful insects it saw when it looked up into the clouds, but all it had ever known was anxiety -- and so it ate and ate, and grew so very fat.
"Oh, I will never fly now, nor ever be beautiful!" the insect cried, as it rolled and pitched precariously on a tiny twig, and munched a green leaf with its six little jaws. Its compound eyes scanned the heavens for a solution, but saw none there.
The poor insect grew still and cold in dismay, and then spun a silken hammock for itself to lie down in its misery. It was so anxious that it spun and spun the hammock around itself, until it shut away the entire world.
And then it cowered, and, so cowering, passed into insensate stupor.
So, much later, after time unknown to it had passed, was the insect more surprised than any other to awaken with a new purpose in its head and a new form for its body. It spread, dried and tested its newly grown multihued wings, and then, unfurling its coiled tongue and tasting for the first time the sweetness of the breeze, soared into the clouds -- alive anew.
Thus, who you are may be merely an incubator of who you can be.

April 28, 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.

Aphorism of the Week

Heaven is best appreciated by entering through the stairway, not the elevator.

Dedicated to the musical achievements of Whitney Houston, who died 40 years too early.

Parable of the Week

The Three-Legged Stool, The Four-Legged Stool
Carpenters ran neighboring shops in a small village courtyard.
One carpenter, a well-to-do man, fashioned a satin-cushioned stool with three legs. It was lustrous, with ornate frill and spindly, curved legs -- and all who came to see it in his fancy shop window applauded its great beauty.
The other carpenter, a poorer and much less talkative man, had also fashioned a stool, but with four legs. It was boxy, much like a straight wooden chair with no back -- and all who walked by where it sat on the stoop of the second carpenter's shop ignored it, or whispered, "That poor carpenter is so boring and old-fashioned!"
Yet one day, the Chieftain, with his young prince in tow, came to the village to shop -- and all the villagers peered over each other's shoulders as the entourage marched into the courtyard of the two carpenters.
The Chieftain glanced at the rich carpenter, who, surrounded by the villagers, genuflected deeply as he gestured expectantly at the gilded, three-legged stool in the shop window.
Then the Chieftain looked at the poor carpenter, who stood alone in his shop's doorway -- and at his thick, boxy, four-legged stool.
"Which stool do you want, my son?" asked the Chieftain, turning to look down to his young boy.
"Oh, the pretty one, Father!" exclaimed the young prince.
As the crowd applauded the young prince, the Chieftain said, "Bring out the stool for my son!" The first carpenter went into his shop window, lifted out his ornate, three-legged stool from its glass enclosure, and placed it before the prince.
"Bring out that one, too!" said the Chieftain, pointing at the unadorned, wooden four-legged stool. As the crowd laughed at his drab stool, the second carpenter reached down and placed it before the young prince.
"My son," said the Chieftain, "sit on your stool."
And thus did the prince hop onto his gracefully-made, upholstered, three-legged stool, and fall flat onto his backside as the stool toppled over.
As the crowd murmured, the Chieftain reached his hand down to his son, raised him up, and brushed off the dirt from his satin-robed bottom.
"My son," he said gently, "now try this other stool."
The prince sat on the other stool gingerly, then began trying to rock it over, but it was so boxy that it refused even to wobble.
"Father, this stool isn't pretty, but it works! I want this one!"
The Chieftain smiled at his heir for the lesson he'd won that day -- and rewarded the nervous first carpenter with his thanks, but the second carpenter with his gold.
Thus, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but usefulness is not.

February 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.

"The Dog, The Wolf"

Orphaned, an infant wolf was raised by a kindly farmer in a ramshackle barn akimbo with dogs.
The wolf cub roamed and tussled with svelte wiener dogs, fluffy huskies, long-nosed collies and elegant greyhounds.
But inside the wolf's breast, an ancient yearning also roamed, unsated -- especially on those darkest nights, when the Milky Way was a sparkling road in the zenith of the sky, and during the full moon, when distant howls rose from the ghostly grey forested peaks surrounding their river valley.
And so, one spring day, as the sun fell to orange dusk and the dogs trotted home from the fields, the wolf -- now a young, strong adult -- stopped in his tracks and stared one last time at the kindly farmer.
The farmer, glancing back, saw the wolf's face -- then walked back alone to him, petted his head, bent down near his backward-pointed ear, and whispered gently.
"Go on, now. It's time."
The wolf looked deep into the man's eyes, then turned and ran into the gloaming.
Years afterward, on moonlit nights, the farmer heard his passionate howling, and felt his own breast overflow.
Thus, follow your truest calling, to be at home in your own skin. -- via Parker Palmer


August 7, 2010, excerpt from The Parables of Reason (Chapter 1, "Reality's Acceptance"), Copyright © 2010 by Frank H. Burton, Ph.D., Founder and Executive Director, The Circle of Reason, Inc. All rights reserved.

Dedicated to U.S. Federal Judge Vaughn Walker's findings, in striking down (as an infraction of the Constitution's 14th [Civil Rights] Amendment guaranteeing due process and equal protection under the law) California's ban on the right of marriage for gay and lesbian couples, that the ban "fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license," and, according to the evidence, "does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples."