IGNORANCE

  What would you do if you were the hero of an action thriller being chased up a cliff by a gigantic flying monster and suddenly you came to a true cul-de-sac where you couldn't escape.  What if the monster closed in; you had already thrown your backpack at the beast; had dropped your sword during the climb, and were weaponless.  What if, while hovering beside the cliff it moved its drooling snout toward you to get a better look at lunch.  What if its 15 foot bloodshot eyeball was right in front of you and you knew there was no way to escape your fate as the monster's next meal. What would you do?  

   I know exactly what I would do.  While holding onto the cliff with one hand I’d poke the monster in the eye with the other.  As it blinked, I’d jump onto its snout, climb up its nose ridges, and grab hold of its eyebrow. Leaning over, I’d kick it in the other eye, then scramble up and sit behind one of its horns until the monster flew over a lake.  I’d jump off and swim to safety.  (Oh wait, that's in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows isn't it?) The monster couldn’t see right, so what I'd really do is wait on its head until it was about to crash into a snow covered mountain because it couldn't see.  Then I'd jump to the ground wait for the monster to bash itself to death against the mountain.  I'd skin it with my Swiss Army knife and using its rib bones I make a saucer to slide down the snow to safety. (Is that in Indiana Jones   After all this is an action thriller, and I am the hero.

   Ignorance is a monster that wants to swallow all of us.  We have to keep poking it in the eye each time it rears its ugly head. The cliff we are climbing is life and we only come to a dead end if we stop trying to learn.  As Yogi Berra said, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” Again the pin stripped Yankee sage said, “If you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

   To paraphrase another great thinker, "To read or not to read, to try or not to try, to dream or not to dream, that is the question."  Take the fork in the road and poke ignorance in its repulsive blood shot eye.