My Writings (New 12)

Some Days We Are A Red Giant

Some days we are a red giant,
Other days a white dwarf are we.
Some days we are a supernovae,
Other days a black hole may be.

Some days we are a meterorite,
Other days we are a burned out ember.
Some days we are an asteroid,
Other days we would rather not remember.

Some days we are a galaxy,
Other days we are a lonely planet.
Some days we are a pulsating star,
Other days we would rather ban it.

Some days we are a solar system,
Other days barely a cosmic ray.
Some days we are a comet,
Other days we would rather just go away.

The Chicken Society

Democracy has never found its way into the chicken society. They are members of the caste system. In each society of chickens there is one chicken who pecks all the other chickens while they are not allowed to peck him or her, for it would be heresy and against all the rules to do so.

Beneath this top chicken there is another chicken who is pecked by the top chicken, but who has the right to peck all the other chickens, and so this system goes on down the line of chickens until we get to the poor little chicken on the bottom who gets pecked by everybody, and it can't peck anybody.

What a miserable life this little unfortunate lives. It spends its life darting in to get a bite of food, then scurring for cover with two or three chickens chasing after it. It lives to itself, and learns to survive outside the group as much as possible, and when it must come among them at feeding and roosting time, does so very warilyand discreetly.

Generally this sad little creature is the smallest chicken, being underfed, and harrassed to the point of despair. If it is given to chickens to worry and be depressed, then no doubt the state of depression and worries of this poor little chicken are quite overwhelming.

Normal

We are all afraid of being called abnormal. We live in absolute fear that someone will say we are not normal. Just to appear normal we devote most of our efforts, and devote the greater part of our life. We could not bear to be thought of as not normal. Life would not be worth living then.

To be deemed odd or strange, eccentric or somewhat crazy, this is what we most fear in life. That somehow our friends or neighbors should ever find out, ever gossip about the fact that we are abnormal, this is the most horrifying thought we can conjecture. This has been true since our childhood on. Especially in school is it important to be thought of asnormal.

Just what is normal? Normal is difficult to define exactly, yet we know that it is what everybody else is, and that normal is what people like, and what they want a person to be. We learn at an early age that being normal consists in doing what is expected of us, in following advice, of conforming to the group, and in being not much different.

Being normal demands that we quench many of our spontaneous actions, and that we stifle our oringinality in favor of conformity and imitation. The pressure to be accepted as normal puts chains around us in our early youth, and all through school and into our adult years in the workplace and other areas of our life. Those chains tighten rather than loosen as we grow older. Our life is not spent for any noble purpose, not for the sake of serving God, or our country, or an ideal, not to developing and finding fulfillment in our work, our family, or a creative endeavor, but for the mere sake of appearing normal.

The creative impulse is often quelled and sometimes completely destroyed at an early age in a child by parents, teachers, and others who pressure the child to be like everyone else, and not to have any identity or originality of their own. Gifted children and adults as well, are often smothered into comformity, and never able to develope their unique gifts and talents, thereby depriving society of their special contributions to the world. The worst result of this is it prevents many people from finding themselves and truly blossoming as human beings, and finding true fulfillment and happiness.

There seems to be a deep seated and almost sinister underlying bias and prejudice, and great fear and hatred of anything or anyone different or not appearing normal in our culture. This more than anything else hampers progress and beneficial discoveries in all areas of society. This more than anything else discourages and stifles originality in the arts, thereby depriving us all, and our world of many works of beauty. It is as if that anything that differs ever soslightly from the so called normal, is viewed as some kind of virus that needs to be wiped out.

On the other hand let me add that I certainly do not condone or advocate an abnormality that would be deemed harmful to an individual or to others, or to animals or the envorinment, or any kind of cruel or evil actions. Everyone must conform to certain laws and standards of conduct of a civilized society for the welfare of us all. And of course any kind of abnormal behavior involving mental illness must be treated, and some form of protection provided for the safety of the individual and others.

Climbing Jacob's Ladder

A ladder reaching beyond the sky,
Reaching unto Heaven so high,
Climbing the ladder to God,
On which His children have ever trod.

Touching each wrung in my trek above,
Lifted on by His redeeming love,
Singing of His mercy to me,
So happy and glad He set me free.

Joyously praising His name so dear,
As pressing my way to Him more near,
Climbing Jacob's Ladder on my way,
From which I shall behold Him someday.

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Email: walterwestfall@webtv.net