A Fable
October 26th, 2012 . by Tim Babb (TANcast's #1 Host/Editor Fan)Once upon a time, a boy named George left a flaming bag of poop on Sam’s door step. George didn’t mean to do it…or maybe he didn’t realize what he was doing…but he did it just the same. He put a bunch of dog turns in a bag, dropped the bag on Sam’s porch, and set it on fire. Then George left.
Fortunately, Barry saw what was happening. He knew that, if left alone, the fire could spread and burn down Sam’s house. Everything Sam had worked so hard for would be gone. Barry didn’t want to see that happen. So he rushed in and stomped out the flaming bag.
Unfortunately, this got poop all over the porch. Although he was glad to have stopped the fire, he now had to clean up all the poop. So he got some soap and water and began the tedious task of cleaning the porch.
Nearby, George’s friends were watching Barry clean the porch. Instead of helping him, they just kept complaining that Barry was taking too long to clean the porch. In fact, they said Barry was stupid for using soap and water. They said the only way to clean the poop was to burn it up.
“But fire is what created this mess,” Barry said. But George’s friends wouldn’t listen.
Sam came out to see what the fuss was all about. George’s friends shouted at Sam that Barry’s soap and water would warp his porch and ruin it forever. The said that Sam should let Mitt clean the poop off the porch with fire instead of water. Barry tried to warn Sam that the fire was what lead to the poop being spread all over in the first place…and that the fire wouldn’t stop after it burned up the poop…it would probably burn his whole house down. Yes, the water might warp a little of the wood on the porch, but at least his house wouldn’t burn to the ground.
For some reason, Sam had the hardest time deciding if he wanted to let Barry finish cleaning up George’s mess or have Mitt do it.
…and that’s why I hate politics.
October 27th, 2012 at 8:26 pm
That was very insightful.
October 27th, 2012 at 8:28 pm
I think I would choose the solution that didn’t involve burning the house down.
Is there another option of leaving the dog poop there and suing for damages? Mental anguish and undue suffering, as well as a clean-up bill?
October 31st, 2012 at 11:37 pm
you for got a chapter-
“Barry begged everyone to let him have to job of cleaning up the poop. He said he could do it well. he said he could do it quickly. he said he wouldn’t make anything worse, and that he would in fact make the porch better looking than before George put the flaming poop there in the first place. he said that if he didn’t have the poop cleaned up at the end of his first try, he thought that he would have to step aside and let someone else try. and the whole time he tried to clean it up unsuccessfully, he never tried different soaps, or different rags, he simply complained about George leaving the mess, and blamed his lack of progress on other people- when he was the one who said he was the only one who could clean it up.”
October 31st, 2012 at 11:45 pm
Barry never said it would be quick or easy. George’s friends like to claim that…but he never did. He tried to find a middle ground with George’s friends, but they wouldn’t hear of it. They were more interested in stopping Barry from cleaning the poop than actually getting the porch clean.