October Journal, Day 2: The Value of Keepin’ On

Despite the nightly news reports and the aggravating drone of the interminable presidential election campaign, there is much about our world to make us smile, to bring us joy, to cause us to sing. I mentioned some of those things in yesterday’s post. Still, so that you won’t think an alien from another planet has invaded my body and replaced my natural cantankerousness with some kind of foreign optimism, I do need to acknowledge that, although the big picture looks hopeful, the little picture, for any of us, can sometimes be frustrating and discouraging. In my own case, I sense that frustration most keenly on Sundays, and, well, it’s Sunday.

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October Journal, Day 1: The Sky is NOT Falling

Everybody knows the children’s story about Chicken Little who gets hit on the head by a falling acorn and immediately assumes the worst, i.e. that the sky is actually made of some sort of solid matter and is beginning to rain down upon the inhabitants of Earth. Chicken Little undertakes to spread the news of impending doom to all his (her?) friends, most of whom are barnyard fowl with goofy, rhyming names.

The origin of the story is unknown but its roots are apparently ancient. Some say a version of the story may have been circulating in Jesus’s day. The ending of the story, and thus the moral it attempts to convey, differs depending on the version being told and the storyteller’s purpose, but one element remains the same in all versions. Chicken Little has misinterpreted the data. The end is not near. Doom is not imminent. The sky is emphatically NOT falling.