I’m going to tell you a story.
“Ok.”
A fable.
“Fine.”
An allegory.
“Ok.”
A chicken was crossing the road.
“What sort of road?”
Does it matter?
“If it was a dual carriageway, it would be a lot more dangerous.”
Ok, a dual carriageway.
So… a chicken was crossing the road.
“What sort of chicken?”
It really doesn’t matter…
“Rhode Island Red? A Silkie? A Jersey Giant?”
A Buckeye.
“A Buckeye?”
A Buckeye.
So, a Buckeye chicken was crossing a busy dual carriageway.
“Go on.”
No more questions?
“Not for the moment.”
Great… Now, before the chicken decided to cross the road –
“Yes?”
– she made a phone call.
“Chickens can make phone calls?”
This one can.
The chicken phoned a big logistics company. She said, ‘Send me a truck!’
‘A truck?’
‘The biggest truck you got. A behemoth.’
‘You got it,’ said the logistics co. ‘What do you want in your truck?’
‘Stuffing. Chicken stuffing.’
‘You got it,’ said the logistics co.
‘It’s got to arrive at exactly – ’ and the chicken gave a time and place.
‘You got it,’ said the logistics co.
But the chicken got her timing wrong. She hadn’t realised she would need to cross that dual carriageway at exactly the time the truck she’d ordered was driving past.
“Um.”
So, the chicken was crossing the road.
“Go on.”
And she looked up… and saw this juggernaut full of stuffing heading her way.
“Oh crap…”
Yes – that’s exactly what she said. ‘Oh crap!’ she squawked. ‘I’m going to get stuffed.’
Then she paused.
She took a moment out, to take stock of things.
You see, this Buckeye was a philosophical sort. She rocked her head from one side to the other, ruffled her feathers a little, then settled down to wait for the impact.
Know what she was thinking?
“No, what was she thinking?”
She was thinking, ‘Well, at least now I know what it feels like to be humanity.’
“Hahaha – very good…”
I thought you’d like it.
“So the truck’s climate change?”
Yep.
“And humanity’s about to get stuffed?”
Exactly.
“Unless we do something quick?”
Yep.
“And we brought it on ourselves.”
Yes.
“I like it. A lot.”
I’m pleased.
“I’m pleased you’re pleased.”
I’m pleased you’re pleased I’m –
“I’ll share it with the kids.”
Please do.
Luke Andreski
Luke Andreski is author of Intelligent Ethics (2019), Ethical Intelligence (2019), Short Conversations: During the Plague (2020) and Short Conversations: During the Storm (2021).
His free ebook, Our society is sick – but here’s the cure is out now and can be downloaded here:
You can connect with Luke on LinkedIn, https://uk.linkedin.com/in/luke-andreski-ethics, on WordPress, https://lukeandreski.wordpress.com/, or via the EthicalRenewal co-op on Twitter https://twitter.com/EthicalRenewal.
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With thanks for Buckeye chicken image to Melinda Sayler, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons.
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