There was once a simple man who found that getting to know people by observing their actions or listening to them explain their beliefs and motivations was just too complex and time consuming. He was overjoyed when he discovered that he could purchase an Acme labeling machine that would stealthily attach invisible labels to peoples' foreheads. He cheerfully went about town assigning labels that read capital C or capital L. Now when he encountered someone with a C, he knew to embrace them and when encountering someone with an L, he could quickly let them know what he thought of them.
His system worked for a time, but times change and he began to notice younger people moving into the neighborhood, and, much to his dismay, many of them had an L on their forehead. He became increasingly paranoid as the L's seemed to outnumber the C's. He stopped leaving his house as often and spent more time listening to talk radio programs and visiting internet blogs. The stress and strain of attempting to correct the wayward L's on internet sites became too much for him. When he passed on, many of the neighbors thought it appropriate that his grave was shallow.
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Comments: 30
Great story with an important moral
he he he - good one - to the very last word !!!
Very well done story!!!!!
Nice story!
Shallow - yep sounds like it.
LOL... excellent and true!
Blessings and best wishes - S.
good story
Help me! Sometimes I can be quite dense. Please tell me why it is appropriate that his grave is shallow? (I feel stupid asking.)
It implies that he was shallow as well.
Thanks! That's what I thought, but I wonder if I agree. I too have withdrawn a long way from society because of the experiences I have had with many, many negative, rude, insensitive people.
Leo
The man in the story has not withdrawn because he has been mistreated.
Don't we all label?
"I like this person."
"I don't care for that person."
Leo
Disliking an individual based on personal experiences with that individual is different than disliking an individual based on assumptions about a group. It makes sense to say "I dislike like Johnny, who is Greek, because he kicked me." It doesn't make sense to say "I dislike all Greeks because Johnny is Greek and he kicked me." If you were hosting a Lutheran picnic, it may be safe to assume that SOME Lutherans like chocolate cake. But if you assume that ALL Lutherans like chocolate cake and that is the only dessert that you serve then you may get some complaints.
There's a good moral to this story
Well done. And I must say, as a liberal, that we are also guilty of doing the very same thing: labelling people and prejudging them on the basis of that label.
It is one of the reasons that I keep an ongoing debate on matters political with a friend who is very conservative. I know him to be a decent person and a good family man, so I am forced to consider his opinions as being motivated by something other than the hatred, fear and rage that seems behind much of conservative commentary these days.
I agree Rory. The C's and L's above could be inverted. On Gather, blanket statements are sometimes too easily made that lead to contention and hurt feelings. Of course that is sometimes purposely done.
Nice story
I hate to be a spoil sport, but I know many shallow L's too. And not all C's are limpbaughs.
Steve
See my response to Rory above
Exactly.
Thanks for claifying that it could go either way. Good story.
It upsets me when people of any political persuasion use pat generalizations and make assumptions that cause divisiveness. It just so happens that it was a C that really irked me today. I like both my liberal friends and my conservative friends and all in between.
Good point! But remember, labels can come from both sides!
Erik-
See my responses to Rory and Sherry above :-)
Haha! A good warning for us all about labeling.
But generalizations are so tantalizing, tempting... and easy... those who need to learn the lesson of your post (on either side) never will.
S'okay, though -- the rest of us still applaud you!
Thought provoking article. I try not to think before 10 am.
wonderful jibe!
What a perfect ending to a neat little tale.
Too true of too many people.