By Madison - Grade 9
Why did the chicken cross the road? We always hear it put that way. Why did the chicken cross the road? But what about why did the road cross the chicken. Think about it that way. What did the chicken do to the road when he crossed it, and if the chicken crossed the road, wouldn't the road have crossed the chicken? So what for did the road cross the chicken? because it had to, proportionately- if the chicken crosses the road then the road crosses the chicken- so why did the road cross the chicken? When you think about it, when you answer the question why did the chicken cross the road you may think to get to the other side, that's commonly the answer we get to the joke. And you think of another piece of figurative language; the grass is always greener on the other side.
So the chicken… scorned the road… to find something better. And, proportionately, the road scorned the chicken in pursuit of something better, but do we even consider this? You have to break free of the question that everybody is asking and you have to ask the other question: why did the road cross the chicken? Now it doesn't matter who the road is and it doesn't matter who the chicken is. In this scenario, the road will be… the bigger power. You know, you can compare a road to a chicken. But to tell the difference between these two events, how are you able to discern them? They are proportional to one another. They could even happen simultaneously because they're the same thing,when the chicken crosses the road, the road crosses the chicken- it just happens. It just depends on what perspective you look at when you're watching this go down. Now what matters mostly is if you look at more than one perspective- if you look at both the perspective of the road and of the chicken, you find yourself asking both questions.
Now this doesn't have to be a matter of good and evil when it comes to crossing, or of good or bad really- as to the reason why you cross the road because it is crossed ultimately, and that is the principle that most everybody will look at: why did the chicken cross the road? How about “how did the chicken cross the road?”, or maybe a sentence: the chicken crossed the road. It's impossible to discern between the two events because they're simultaneous, and they are the same event just worded differently and looked upon differently. They're not the same question but the same thing happens. And then the fact of the matter; when you watch you are watching one event.
Everybody knows that Jesus washed feet. It's something that needs to be done. It's like scrubbing a floor: when you scrub a floor it helps the floor. You don't want to do it. It needs to be done and it improves the floor. Might give you a little muscle, I don't know- if you do it a lot. Basically it improves quality of life. You do the same thing as washing feet does, and nobody wants to do it. Now say when you're scrubbing that floor you get the thinking and you're in your own state, you want to think. You followed this through and you just wanna chase it down and find your answers. Maybe you just wanna be left alone- you don't wanna talk to anybody, but you get to thinking and you realize that you told your friend you would call them later. Maybe you didn't tell them, maybe you just thought you would, or you knew that you needed to. Maybe he's not your friend- maybe your family member that you haven't connected to in a while, but you know that you need to talk to him, and you should do that but now you don't want to. So you get to thinking and you decide that you could tell him a lie, or you can tell yourself a lie about why you shouldn't call them or why you're not going to. And then amongst this rabbit hole that you're going down while you're thinking, while you're scrubbing the floor: what is a lie?
Nothing is a lie really depending on what perspective you look at, and if you look in every perspective, then essentially nothing is a lie. And it doesn't become a matter of good or evil. Because we think of lies as bad and when there are no lies, there's nothing bad, there's only truth and truth is good. It carries integrity. So think about it. This way, everything is the truth. Everything is good. That means that everything God gives, has given, continues to give- is good. Now absolutely on some level these things are bad because while the lie may help you, yeah of course it'll help, you don't wanna talk to people, you can scrub the floor. You can continue to think- and thinking is amazing- but maybe you should've talked to that friend or that family member. It would've helped you to socialize, maybe could've helped them to socialize, to go out and do or maybe stay inside and do- but on some note it absolutely is bad.
There are effects that are cast and they're not great- but that's not why you did it. So depending on what perspective you look from- why did the chicken cross the road- why did the road cross the chicken? Why does the deaf dog bark? Everything is good, everything God does is good; now of course it has those bad effects but ultimately, when you look at every perspective, and that includes the bad ones- because people are getting crossed: chickens, roads are getting crossed. It is always to get to the other side. And we talked about proportionality so maybe you can say that everything God does is bad because on some note, it will be bad. So that makes it bad, right? Just like how we’ve established that if something is partially good it makes it good. Now I'm not talking about optimism or pessimism. But without light, there is no darkness. Or maybe another definition; darkness is the absence of light. so shouldn't when you look at that light all the darkness disappear because when you bring forth the light, all the darkness does disappear. You light up a lamp in the middle of a cave, it will take away the darkness. So it's not that everything God does is bad. That's just the darkness- and when you add the light and you see that there is some light- that will take away the darkness and it can, if you look from every perspective and you see the light. And in complete honesty, you as the chicken might have to cross the road to see the light- or you as the road might have to cross the chicken to see the light. That one might be a little more accurate.
Another question- does the deaf dog bark? When he does, he goes outside and the regular dog follows him because she's gonna check out why the deaf dog barked. They go outside and they look around, they both look around and they try to investigate the cause of the noise. What happened: why’d the deaf dog bark. Now they go outside, they look around, and the normal dog might even come back in first- it doesn't matter- you might follow them back inside really. But when the deaf dog comes back inside, he might be the one following the normal dog. Honestly, it doesn't matter who follows who, but you see this event. The deaf dog barking. It's not a good thing, you don't like it. It's redundant; why is the deaf dog barking? But the normal dog, she follows the deaf dog outside- you followed the deaf dog- and when you go outside, and when you come back in, you’ve checked across the road, you’d looked at the other side of the grass, you come back in and maybe you realize that now you were leading the deaf dog, that the deaf dog is the one following. See, this bad thing might've happened, but you gained something. You are no longer the follower- you are the leader. You may be leading a deaf dog, but it's not the fact that you were leading a deaf dog, it's: why do you lead a deaf dog or why does the deaf dog follow you? It’s not the act of crossing, but that a chicken crossed the road.
And amongst your leading, you may not realize you became a leader because the deaf dog barked, because of this redundant, tedious, useless thing that happened- but you saw it through and you followed, the normal dog followed, and she didn't follow because she suspected the deaf dog would follow her back. No, she followed, and when she came back inside, she was no longer the follower, but the leader.
So- why does the deaf dog bark?
Maybe because he needed somebody to listen to.
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