Aphorism of the Week

Shun the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. -- via John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Dedicated to Malala Yousufzai.

Parable of the Week

The Terrorists, The Diplomats
Lands of ancient beauty were torn between two peoples, bounded by barbed wire, concrete barricades and snipers -- but even more by the deepest chasm of hate.
Wherever a hand was raised in salutation, it was dismembered by the bombs of terrorists.
Whenever a peace treaty requiring disarmament and cessation of violence was signed, so too was it dismembered, by even one lone man's bitter or ecstatic instant of murder.
And, in response to murder, murder was returned ten-fold.
So did the chasm of hatred deepen, until there was no way to bridge it -- no way to stop the apotheosis of slaughter.
Yet,

Aphorism of the Week

Own the day. -- via Star Trek: Voyager

Dedicated to Felix Baumgartner's breaking the speed of sound in humankind's highest base jump, from 128,000 feet above the Earth.

Parable of the Week

The Passenger, The Driver
The car wound its sinuous way along the backcountry.
Its driver, a wide grin on her face, craned her neck as she passed grazing Hereford cows and cantering white and fawn-colored horses.
She smelled violet-carpeted hillsides, topped with bales of hay curled up like cinnamon buns, through her half-lowered, dirt-streaked window as she drove beneath tall oak boughs.
She gazed off to the horizon -- at careening, distant blue vistas of mountainsides and river valleys -- as the car jounced on the rutted, golden-brown clay road.
She was so glad.
Then her

Aphorism of the Week

The true root of all evil is refusing to think.

Dedicated to elderly Minnesota voters, in the hope that those who long ago blocked anti-miscegenation and Jim Crow statutes will again remain the bulwark of liberty for every loving couple to marry & start a family, and for every citizen to vote. "4 Tru <3 Vote No, & Vote No 2 <3 Truth."

Parable of the Week

The Dreaming Woman, The Seeing Woman
Born on the same day in the same village, two women grew up as friends.
One was born into poverty, and saw early that work -- either hers or her poor father's -- supplied the money to buy food and goods.
The second woman was born into wealth, and never accepted that someone's work was needed for her to eat or have fine things at her whim.
Then war cast both women anew into poverty.

Aphorism of the Week

A solitary fantasy can transform a million realities. -- via Maya Angelou

Dedicated to Libyan ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and his diplomatic staff, who were among the self-chosen few who believe in changing the world.

Parable of the Week

The Dragon's Breath, The West Wind
Nigh on their 13th year, two boys became explorers.
With but small knapsacks thrown over their shoulders, the boys ran out of town and far into the mountain foothills -- chasing after a caravan of gypsies slowly rolling toward the Western Lands.
Seeing the boys run after them, the King of the Gypsies raised his gnarled hand from the forward wagon. The music and the caravan stilled.
"Please, Gypsy King, may we explore the world with you?" asked one of the boys, a tall, lithe lad, while the

Aphorism of the Week

Among the most precious of our satisfactions is the joy of craftsmanship -- our performance is our wage. -- via Judge Learned Hand

Dedicated to Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon.

Parable of the Week

The Inchworm, The Grasshopper
Grassy hillocks undulated under clouds swept like great dust bunnies into the corners of the earth.
The Inchworm crawled along and between blades of grass as if it had all the time in the world.
Slowly it waved about, then grabbed the glossy face of a nearby green blade with its first six feet (six of many!), bent its long torso up into the air to hoist its rear, and grasped the blade with its last six feet.
Then it stretched way out, and did it all over again.
So did the Inchworm inch along in life.
But the Grasshopper acted

Aphorism of the Week

A prize of great value is not meant to be given away.

Dedicated to Pussy Riot's call for freedom from Russian President Putin's restoration of dictatorship in collusion with the Russian Orthodox Patriarch.

Parable of the Week

The Forceful, The Persuasive
Rulers of men oft rise at night.
Come into power upon the hastened death of his predecessor, he quickly cast off all whose ability threatened his supremacy. He declared himself king, and when he barked his imperial orders, those who disobeyed or hesitated were exiled or executed.
One day he was to receive in his royal court the Leader of a powerful neighboring country.
"This is a Leader?" the king asked, laughing, as his courtiers briefed him about the man he would soon meet. "He did not usurp power, but asked

Aphorism of the Week

Government is mass irrationality, or our one aegis against it.

Dedicated to the bold VP choice, in Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), of GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, to ensure the meaning of the 2012 U.S. Elections will be a clear choice between two opposed dreams for American self-governance: A Libertarian America of individual success or failure, or a Communal America where all succeed or fail together.

Parable of the Week

The Remora, The Ray
Fathomless was the ocean wherein lived a Remora and a Ray.
The Remora was a thin little fish, and, fearing to sound the depths of the ocean, it used a sucker on its forehead to hitch a ride -- upon the ghostly belly of a fearsome, great white shark, to whom it was way too small to bother eating.
Wherever the shark roamed,

Aphorism of the Week

Bend your mind toward achieving that happiness distinctive of Man -- utmost development of His godlike potentiality. -- via Bertrand Russell.

Dedicated to Curiosity -- climb high, delve deep, and point the way.

Parable of the Week

The Human, The Sentient
One day a human looked up into the zenith of the heavens, arcing above her blue and green-swathed Earth.
She saw a small, cloudy galaxy far, far away -- Canis Major, pulled along like a puppy on a leash of a billion stars.
The human felt a lonesome chill in her heart, and heard a distant voice calling to her -- and wondered, "Is there anybody out there?" She devoted her life to listening to the radioed songs of the spheres -- listening for but one word, one tune, one message.
And she pointed her antennae to Canis

Courage is the whisper of conscience amid the tempest.

In memory of the victims of the Joker Massacre, The Circle of Reason will post no instructional parable this week; but we dedicate this aphorism to the heroes in the theater who chose to risk death to save loved ones and even strangers.