Okay…I finally quit laughing and now I can write. I recently read an article in a local paper that, although it was serious, and about a serious topic, caused my little mind to spin off into fantasy land. Here’s the story that came to my mind….maybe you can think of something you’ve seen or heard that it fits with…finding humor in serious situations often allows for a release of stress that allows people to be more creative in problem solving. Try it some time:)
Once upon a time there were these two neighbors. One man, we’ll call him Sam, had a horse that he really didn’t much need. NowSam had a neighbor, we’ll call him Will, who had access to a great barn and plenty of pasture and Sam, being a good neighbor and figuring that Will could find a good use for the horse decided to just give it to him.
Well, Will was happy and just bustin’ with pride when that horse was brought over and put in his barn. By golly, he now had a horse (oops, I forgot to mention that all the other neighbors around there had horses except for Will).
All seemed to be going well until all of a sudden a few weeks later, Will calls Sam, all in a dither, wanted him to come take care of that darned horse that Sam had given him. Shakin’ his head, wondering what could be the problem, Sam wandered on over to Will’s place to see what was up.
Will arrived at the barn and walked inside. There on the floor of one of the stalls was that horse Will had given Sam and it was dead as a door nail. The horse was nothing but skin and bones.
Sam showed up at the barn about that time and Will turned to him and asked “Sam, what the heck happened?”
Will responded “beats me, must have been sick or something.”
Looking around the stall Sam noted there was no food or water in with the horse.
“Will?” asked Sam, “What you been feeding that horse?”
Will responded “What you mean feed? You gave me the horse; didn’t you take care of him?”
Sam was a bit stunned by this response but went on to his next question. “All you needed to do was open the gate and let him out into that pasture, why there’s even a creek there for him to drink out of when he needed water.”
“Oh, well, I couldn’t do that, I don’t own that land. Bucky over there owns the land and lets me use it. I reckon it was his responsibility to come over and open the gate to let the horse out.”
Sam, a puzzled look on his face, simply rolled his eyes and walked off. As he was walking away he made one last comment. “Well, I don’t reckon he needs me to feed him now. And, Bucky coming over to open the gate at this point sure won’t help. I figure that horse is your problem to deal with now.”
Silly story……maybe, maybe not. The abdication of responsibility is never really funny. But, there was a certain irony in the article I read that seemed so silly to me.
Personally, I always figured if I was given something, in accepting it I took responsibility for the right use of that something and for the care needed to keep it functional. I’m sure some of you feel differently.
