"There are two kinds of people when parachutes fail: screamers, and flappers."

~ Jeff MacNeilley

June 2, 2002

Welcome to Wyndspirit Dreams! It is amazing that pheasants are not an endangered species. When I drive the "roads less traveled," I see a variety of birds on the road, sometimes singly, sometimes in flocks. Turkeys, ducks, geese, all sorts of songbirds, all dive out of the way when my car approaches. But not pheasants. They either just stand there or they dash frantically back and forth across the road, unable to figure out that they need to flap their wings and fly to get out of harm’s way.

I have had this quote in my collection for quite some time, but I never really gave it much thought till spring came and I started dodging pheasants again. Now, I have no idea if they are truly that stupid, or if they are just too petrified for their little bird brains to figure out what to do. It doesn’t really matter—either way, they end up getting squashed.

Still, I can sympathize with them. When trouble comes, sometimes I just want to ignore it and hope it goes around me. Occasionally it does, but usually it runs me over if I don’t do something about it. Back to the quote. I think there are actually three kinds of people: screamers, flappers, and those who do nothing, but hope there’s something below to catch them. I do realize that it’s a bit of a stretch to go from jumping with a failed parachute to dodging cars—most of us are a lot more apt to be dodging cars like the pheasants! But the essence of the quote is true—we need to at least try to do something to help ourselves when trouble comes, no matter how futile it seems.

When trouble comes, how do you deal with it? Do you whine and complain and make a lot of noise over how tough you have it? Do you pretend it’s not happening and hope it will just go away? Or do you start flapping and try to do something about it?
 

Wyndspirit Dreams
 meadowlark@wyndspirit.com
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