Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Light From A-far

I look at the little light. It goes on, then off, on, off. What if I was a light; blinking on then off, on, off.
No.
I would not like to be a light. Sure I would be able to help people see in the dark, to light their rooms, streets, and other worldly things. But just a light is not for me.
No.
W would want to be a star.
Yes! a star.
Way, way, far up there. Among billions and trillions of other stars. I would twinkle and shine and people would look up at me and say, "Oh! What a pretty star." And they would see all of my brothers and sister too, helping me softly light the night skies around the whole universe.
Yes.
A star is what I want to be.
A star.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

The Button and the Stone

The girls came in that morning as they did every Sunday morning; staggered at first, a flowing main crowd, and then the few last stranglers of class. Peanut stood at the door this morning with a jar. The jar held two types of things: a bunch of pretty, sparkly, stones, and a bunch of buttons. As each girl came through the door, Peanut would greet them, ask how they were, and then ask them to select either a beautiful stone or a button from the jar. She noticed that most of her students chose the lovely stones, yet some did pick the buttons. At last all of the girls had arrived and were seated in a semi-circle as usual. Peanut, instead of taking her normal seat in front, she stood between two little tables with cloth over them. The girls all wondered what the covered table was for. Peanut then proceeded to tell the girls that the ones who had chosen the buttons get the special something under this table (as she pointed to one table) and the girls who had taken a colorful stone got the something special under that table (and she pointed to the other table). Some of the girls looked at their buttons in dismay, maybe their something special wouldn't be a great as what the girls withe the stones would get. Peanut removed the cloth to the first table: teeny heart-shaped boxes of chocolates lay on the table. Peanut then invited all of the girls with the buttons up to each take a box. Next, she removed the cloth for the second table: little cups sat on the table . . . filled with corn flakes. All of the girls with the stones had to come and take a cup of corn flakes from the table. Peanut then proceeded with her lesson, which was just this:
Although you choose something pretty, it doesn't mean that the outcome will be. And just because the thing you chose isn't very beautiful or lovely does not mean that the outcome will be unattractive. As you've seen here, after you have chosen you cannot take it back. Hence: every single decision will affect you as well as everyone else for the rest of your and their lives. For example: if you drink and drive (what an over-used example this is anyway) and you kill someone; not only does it affect the person you killed but it affects their family for the rest of their lives as well as you, for you have to live with that. As far as decisions go, you need to think, for no matter what the decision is, it will have an affect. So from now on, think about your stone and your button: which one do you want.
And with that lesson, Peanut gave each of the girls a stone if they chose a button and a button if they had chosen a stone. She told them to carry both their stone and button everywhere. And to think about which one they want in the very end. Do you want the stone but have the corn flakes, or do you want the button and the box of chocolates?