I heard this story at work this weekend, and thought I'd pass it along.
Once upon a time there was an older, retired Easter Bunny named Harold. Harold had given up regular Easter duties years ago and had spent his retirement traveling around the country, seeing the sights, sampling the carrots, and napping. When Easter rolled around Harold typically contacted an actively practising Easter Bunny who would give him a few colored eggs to leave around wherever he happened to be...it wasn't a real job, but it satisfied that urge he had to give things to others - which is practically a genetic component of an Easter Bunny.
In the year we're speaking of, Harold had run into his nephew, Bob, not long before Easter and had persuaded Bob to give him a few eggs in time to pass them out wherever he happened to be. Bob hadn't made his eggs yet, but promised to send one of the kids with them in plenty of time.
Unfortunately that year there was a late snow the week before Easter, and Bob just couldn't send any of the kids out in that....plus he needed the whole family on Easter himself, if he was going to get all the eggs out in 12" of the white stuff.
And so, Harold's eggs were late.
Harold, at the time, found himself in the outskirts of a little town on the plains. He'd been hopping around, sampling the carrots and taking naps. He was sorry he didn't have any eggs for the people on Easter, but was philosophical about it. When they arrived the week after, he went ahead and distributed them. From his perspective it was a case of it's better late than never.
Bob had only sent a few eggs anyway. Not enough, really, for everyone in town. So Harold gave an egg to the mayor and the town council, the newspaper man, the sheriff's department...what he thought of as the "central" functionaries and then started in on the blocks...he only got around a few before his eggs were all gone; only some of the townspeople got their belated egg...some got none at all.
On the morning the eggs were finally delivered to the lucky ones, Mrs. Dunsworthy came out onto her lawn to get the morning paper and found an Easter Egg. Mrs. Dunsworthy was the head of the PTA...and a busy, no nonsense sort of woman.
"Who left this Easter Egg?" she demanded of the front yard. "This wasn't here yesterday!" She looked up and down the block and, sure enough, there was an Easter egg on every lawn. "This is most peculiar" she thought. "I'm going to get the bottom of this!"
Mrs. Dunsworthy immediately called her friend Norma on the City Council. "Did you get an Easter Egg?" she asked. "Yes!", said Norma. "What do you think of that?"
"I find it most disturbing" said Mrs. Dunsworthy. "Easter was a week ago. Why are these eggs here now?? For one thing," she added, a child could have found one and eaten it and died...they must be week old!....or thrown it at a car! or another child!...these things are dangerous! Who would just leave them lying around like that?"
"Oh, I hadn't thought of that" said Norma pensively. "Dangerous, eh? Oh dear." Norma had a special friendship with the newspaper editor so she called him. "Elmer" she said. "Someone is threatening us...threatening the town! Edna Dunsworthy just got a poison, exploding egg in her yard...I got one, too, but mine was a regular one (she didn't tell him, that, in fact, she's already eaten it)...but Edna thinks we're all in danger and I wondered if you'd heard about it."
"I got one, too" said Elmer...."my whole block did. Everybody's asking me about them and I don't know a thing. It's driving me crazy. I'm going to send out my reporters immediately and we'll get to the bottom of this!"
Pretty soon the whole town was talking about the frightening eggs that had turned up on their lawns a week after Easter. People were taking sides, people were getting angry. The City Council held a meeting; the sheriffs told people to use the annonymous tip line; Elmer wrote editorials daily.
Harold the Easter Bunny, meanwhile was both appalled and fascinated. He'd been on the edge of the Mayor's lawn, nibbling grass, when Elmer and the Mayor discussed how to handle the egg crisis. "Egg crises?" thought Harold. "I'd better listen to this". He hopped nearer the Mayor, under the edge of the weeping forsythia, so he could evesdrop. When he heard that everyone was frightened of his Easter eggs, he was dumfounded...then rather frightened himself. "If they ever find out that it was me who left them those eggs, I'm a stew my nightfall" he thought.
Harold left the Mayor's lawn poste haste. He should have just left town, but the whole situation was so facinating, in a creepy sort of way, that he just couldn't. Instead, he stayed in town but out of sight, hopping from shrub to shrub and listening in. He turned his ears towards the council chambers during town meetings, listened through the open windows to the PTA, heard Edna harranging the sheriff on the telephone, caught the Mayor and his secretary holding hands in the lilacs behind the City Building. The talk was all about eggs....dangerous eggs, subversive eggs, possibly illegal eggs...
and what to do about it.
Harold noticed that the town was so preoccupied with the eggs, things weren't getting done...the trash hadn't been picked up for days...the High School graduation ceremony, which should have been planned by now hadn't even been thought of...hardly anyone had mowed their lawns...which was a good thing as far as Harold was concerned..more food, more cover.
One day, Harold ventured a little farther afield, up to the town's water supply, thinking to eat a little watercress. The city fathers had built a large reservoir above the town that this time of year was usually still a little icy. This year was different, however, because after the big Easter snow, it had warmed up...way up...all that snow had melted fast and the reservoir was full...very full, Harold noticed...so full, in fact that it was beginning to trickle over the top; the dam itself seemed to bulge...the whole business looked unstable to Harold.
It made him nervous and he hopped back to town, thinking he might get someone's attention...get somebody's dog to chase him, perhaps, so the owner would chase the dog and see the bulging, dripping, straining dam...poised, as it was, right above the town...
But, of course, nobody noticed the Easter Bunny...they were all too busy dusting the eggs for fingerprints. So Harold decided that it was time he moved on...he'd heard Witchita was nice this time of year. And he vowed NEVER to leave eggs a week late again!
The moral of the story is Timing is Everything!
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7 comments:
Isn't it grand to know that in an everchanging and uncertain world the law of unintended consequences remains operative? Blog on and my best to Harold.
Poor Richard
God bless Harold!
Who knew Fly where such talented story tellers.
Go Harold! If the towns people can see a good thing when its right in their lawn. The let them learn to swim.
ya know,timing is everything. For the first time that i can remember in the last five years,we're having a nurses forum. If i'm not mistaken this should be a meeting for nurses to ask questions, get answers and decide a course of action to take, if any....i'm speaking about the lack of raises for nurse 1 and2's. probably would be a good idea to write down some thoughtful questions to ask of our nursing director. might be a good idea to spread the word to other nurses who wonder what happened to our raise....can't wait! this blog is great!!!!
working woman
The Blog gets nursing to stop hiding behind closed doors and have a meeting. Someone says sick out and the nurses get a meeting rmarkable go blog.
Timing is everything, you bet ya!
Let me confess, I have been silly. I am usually so busy at work that I did not give it a second thought that there was a yellow dodad in my box. It's been there for weeks. I was questioned by a co-worker regarding this thing but could not shed any light on why there was a fly swatter given to me. I am paid to take care of patients. I don't spend much time with others, who appear to be paid to discuss how milieu people keep patients fed, bathed, educated, informed, and most importantly, SAFE, via both emotional and physical monitoring. And of course, the charting for all of the above, on over a dozen patients, I do that too. There aren't enough hours in a shift for me to then ponder on too many other things. Frequently, though, I need to find some more time, especially after I have worked an off hours shift, to listen to how I could have done all the above better, even though I seldom see MD's, psychologists, social workers, managers, or even a charge nurses in the milieu. (If you are a charge nurse who knows the way to the milieu, or has ever done more than a round of safety checks, or even a process group, or a 1:1 talk with a patient, or sitting for Obs 1, or the charting, like I am responsibile for, then please disregard any presumed slight) But I digress, I apologize, now back to my point. I paid little attention to that dodad in my box, until a recent hot day, when the unit was so stuffy, that I needed to find an intervention for myself. I opened a door, but it got closed because folks who have squatting rights to the office chairs, have allergies. I made a paper fan, but a patient thought he needed it more than I did, and I could live with that. So after my shift was over, and I actually found a chair in the nurses station to use while charting, I found the dodad in my box. I got it out and BY GOD realized that it made an OK fan. I was exhibiting this unbelievable behavior in the back corner of the nurses station, much to the dismay of the charge nurse/professional office squatter. She noticed me, while talking on the phone to her daughter, for the third time this hour, on company time. I realize it is important for her to give recreational suggestions to her children, because she is not home yet, but I didn't realize how much redirection I needed for trying to finish my charting. (which included a 662, a group, a family's disagreement with treatment, and my 5 chart notes) I admit, I was silly because I was not aware of how inappropriate I was being. I just wanted to be more comfortable while I finished work. So I guess somebody will have to add MISAPPROPRIATION OF DODAD, to the controversy of the fly swatters.My only other comment-
FAN ON!
Dear Bunny Commenters,
Harold asked me to let you all know how very much he has enjoyed your remarks and good wishes!
Thanks to all of you and good luck at the Nursing Forum!!
Fan On!!
g.f.
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