Getting Goosed with Knowledge…

I think – without question, for far too long we’ve all ignored the impact geese have made on our lives. You’d be pretty hard pressed to find anyone  who doesn’t carry a picture in their wallet of at least one goose who made an important life decision for us. Well, now – here’s another…

A flock of wild geese were flying in formation, heading south for the winter. They formed a beautiful V in the sky, and were admired by everyone. One day, Wally, one of the geese in the formation, spotted something that caught his eye. It was a barnyard with a flock of tame ducks who lived on the farm. They were all waddling around, quacking merrily and eating corn that was fed to them every day. “It sure would be nice to have some of that corn,” Wally thought to himself.

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How easily I tire, trying to enrich you with my goose knowledge, get me a sandwich... "

After thinking it over, Wally left the formation, made a sharp dive to the left, and headed for the barnyard. He landed among the tame ducks, and began to waddle around and honk merrily. He also started gorging himself on corn. The formation of geese continued their journey South, Wally didn’t care. “I’ll rejoin them when they come back North in a few months, he said to himself.

Several months went by and sure enough, Wally looked up and spotted the flock of geese heading north. They looked so beautiful up there. And Wally was tired of the barnyard. It was muddy and everywhere he waddled, there was nothing but duck poo. “It’s time to leave,” said Wally. He flapped his wings furiously and tried to get airborne. But he had gained too much weight from all his corn-eating, and he hadn’t exercised his wings. He finally got off the ground, but he was flying too low and slammed into the side of the barn. He was killed instantly. Eventually Wally no longer paid any attention to the geese flying overhead. He hardly even noticed them. He had, after all, become a farm goose, plus he was dead.

Look what happened to Wally. He thought he would just “check-it-out” for a while, taking the easy way out, and then leave when he wanted to. But he couldn’t do it.

Now I suppose your dull and un-imaginative interpretation of this story falls along these lines – The easy path is often a trap, and it has a way of changing us into people we don’t want to become. Eventually we lose touch with who we really are. We become farm geese.

I would agree with you – had I suffered a massive brain injury and been declared legally a moron – because that’s what you’d be…. the true moral here, the message we should take from this cautionary tale….. quite simple really…. is      …When hunter-gatherers with growing populations depleted the stocks of game and wild foods across the Near East, they were forced to introduce agriculture. But agriculture brought much longer hours of work and a less rich diet than hunter-gatherers enjoyed. Further population growth among shifting slash-and-burn farmers led to shorter fallow periods, falling yields and soil erosion. Plowing and fertilizers were introduced to deal with these problems – but once again involved longer hours of work and degradation of soil resources.

it’s just so bloody obvious….

Have a Great Day.