Friday morning, as I was reading the St. Petersburg Tribune I was reminded of the fairy tale known in this country as Chicken Little. There are many versions of the Henny Penny story.
“The story was part of the oral folk tradition and only began to appear in print after the Brothers Grimm had set a European example with their collection of German tales in the early years of the 19th century. One of the earliest to collect tales from Scandinavian sources was Just Mathias Thiele, who in 1823 published an early version of the Henny Penny story in the Danish language.[3] The names of the characters there are Kylling Kluk,[4] Høne Pøne,[5] Hane Pane,[6] And Svand,[7] Gaase Paase,[8] and Ræv Skræv.[9] In Thiele's untitled account, a nut falls on Kylling Kluk's back and knocks him over. He then goes to each of the other characters, proclaiming that “I think all the world is falling” and setting them all running. The fox Ræv Skræv joins in the flight and, when they reach the wood, counts them over from behind and eats them one by one. Eventually the tale was translated into English by Benjamin Thorpe after several other versions had appeared.” ((Wikipedia.com)
In other versions of the story the chicken escapes and is able to warn the king.
One of the headlines in a June 26th story by Washington Post writer Karen Tumulty was “For Republicans, noisy outrage, quiet relief”. She was referring to the decision of the U. S. Supreme Court to uphold a portion of the Affordable Care Act which provides financial assistant for millions of people in the United State to purchase health insurance. Republicans (and some Democrats) have, as a whole, waged war again this health care plan since it became law. The sigh of relief is because had the Supreme Court decided that the financial assistance was illegal it would have put pressure on those opposed to the current Act to come up with a viable alternative.
That, of course, is not the only decision the Supreme Court is making this session. Daily there are many reports from local, stage, federal and legislative bodies as well as courts at every level and elected officials making decisions which some herald as the dawning of a new era in creating a just and loving society and other decry as the equivalent of “the sky is falling”.
This is a tale often repeated throughout history. I recall, as a child, listening to my grandparents and their peers talking about political issues and election results. Often no matter which side won or lost there was a group of people on both sides who were convinced that if their opinion did not prevail, the sky was going to fall – the end of civilization as one then knew it. To be fair, there have been times in history when, indeed, the sky (little ‘s’) did fall. Nations or empires ceased to exist. Entire communities have been wiped out by a person-made device such as atomic weapons or by “natural’ events such as illness, floods, volcano eruptions, storms, and events such as oil spills. Often many people have died. Such “natural” disasters have included:
Number died
300,000 1737 Calcutta cyclone
280,000 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
273,400 1920 Haiyuan earthquake
7005250000000000000♠250,000–300,000 526 Antioch earthquake
Wikipedia
Historians have estimated between 21.5 million and 50 million people died as a result of the 1918-1919 flue pandemic. Even the low number, 21.5 million is a lot of people.
Are the political events, the death and destruction caused by wars, the suffering from oppression, and the destruction caused by natural disasters the equivalent of the sky is falling. Yes, in many respects. Such events and the prevention, when possible, of such future events is essential if we humans are to continue to populate this planet. We may indeed have another great flood requiring the equivalent of Noah’s ark. In fact, the more we learn that we are a small part of the total number of possible universes, we have to accept that any one the universes, including ours, may not exist in the future.
Now we are no longer dependent on a Paul Revere to warn of impending disasters. We creative humans have now invented many ways of instantly spreading the word of every disaster which has occurred or may be about to occur. We are surrounded by constant cries of “The sky is falling.” We shout and scream, numb ourselves with our “diversion de jour”, wring our hands and shop for the right costume to wear to the universe going out of business observance! The party planners are busy being their most creative in designing the perfect event complete with the biggest fire works ever known and a setting to rival the best of the extravagant by gone move sets. It will be a party to end all parties.
The opposite approach is the Buddhist approach of “Oh, isn’t that interesting.” Another possible approach is the yin yang level of reality – an approach which appreciates that the ending is always the beginning.
My undergraduate degree was in the study of philosophy. At some point in my studies I was introduced to the very opposite of what I had often learned in school or in the framework of the religion in which I was raised. I learned to question the validity of what has been known as the law of contradiction which basically states that something cannot be both x and non-x. I will not delve into this area of study at this time. Suffice it to say that this is another way of experiencing the world. Certainly it is the way the Republicans in this country are viewing the decision of the supreme court. The decision is good. The decision is terrible.
Whether we are exploring the possible truth of the biblical statement “all things work together for good”, basic system theory or the string theory of physical, it cannot be contested that everything in my present reality is completely dependent of all that has happened in my past. If I had the power to change any past event and exercised that power my current life would be much different. Whether it would be better or worse is open to question but it would be different.
What if we then take this yin yang, seemingly contradictory truths to the news of chicken little. Either the sky will fall or it will not. If it does and I die, that is just a moment prior to when I would have died anyway. At 75 I know that life only lasts a few seconds at most. If the sky does not fall then I am going to keep putting one foot in front of the other and reminding myself to breathe – left food, right foot, breathe.
From my perspective both of the following are absolutely true:
· Quality health care for all people is very important and, in fact, the only moral choice.
· With or without health care life is two second long. All that matters is that I do my best to be as healthy as possible so that I can show up to love as best as humanly possible in this moment.
When I am willing to allow for these two possible truths about every issues – the outcome matters absolutely and it does not matter – I am able to stay focused on what is and do my best to honor the sacredness of the moment.
Perhaps I could offer chicken little a vacation in the far away land of a vegetarian resort built especially for chicken littles!
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