MODERN VERSION OF THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER

TRADITIONAL VERSION :
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long,building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dancesand plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY : Be responsible for yourself!

MODERN UPDATED VERSION :
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dancesand plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be warm and well fedwhile others are cold and starving. CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortablehome with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, "It's Not Easy Being Green." Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, "We shall overcome." Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for thegrasshopper's sake. Nancy Pelosi , John Kerry & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of thegrasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share. Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity andAnti-Grasshopper Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer! The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of greenbugs, and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government. Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in adefamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients. The ant loses the case.The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it. The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY : Be careful how you vote in 2008.

(AUTHOR UNKNOWN)

WHAT DO I KNOW ABOUT FORGIVENESS?

Forgiveness has never been well defined, nor is it still. It is only through betrayal or violation that the word metamorphoses. “Will you forgive me?” you’re asked, and the trite affirmative retort comes effortlessly. But the real meaning of the word cannot be understood until stripped of something that is rightfully yours, something for which you’ve worked long and hard, something vested, something precious, priceless, that meaning is truly assigned.

The Bible admonishes that we should forgive not once, but seventy times seven. Literally, that is 490 times. But after that, what? Forgiveness is not something that can be calculated. Forgiveness can only take place when the heart and the mind meld. For if the mind oversees the procedure, there is far too much evidence to the contrary. When wronged without justification, unparalleled litigation can be compiled.

Empathy, originating from inside the heart, raises its head from behind the moral rock of justice. The heart understands the internal conflict of good versus evil that plagues mankind in every decisive moment. Desperate people do desperate things.  Heart and mind are locked in battle, waging war and vying for supremacy. Yet with each blow there rises an echo from the soul, "Father, forgive them."
From this triad of confliction comes the undeniable question, "Have I ever wronged another? Am I guilty?" Who can rightfully stand in judgment? The only one who claimed to be guiltless was crucified between to convicted thieves. Yet in this unjust scenario it was He who could see beyond egregious faults to desperate needs and plead, “Father, keep in mind, they're blind.” From that perspective, flaunting a noose is calloused.
The illusive concept of forgiveness is better understood when seen in the light of this thought: "Would I rather be the one robbed, or the robber?" Forgiveness is the inner transformation that comes from that flash of insight that proclaims, “I am so blessed to be the accuser and not the accused.” It is the shift in the paradigm that is at the core.
Forgiveness is not overlooking a violation. It is seeing the violation with clarity. True forgiveness comes not because of nobility but because of sight. To forgive is to come to that infinite place of clarity when the consortium of heart, mind and soul announce in unison, “I see”.

--Joan G. Rhoden