Have You Ever Danced? An Allegory . . . .

Old joke, altered slightly to illustrate a point, or two . . .

An old prospector shuffled into the town of  El Indio, Texas  leading an old tired mule.  The old man headed straight for the only saloon in town, to clear his parched throat.  He walked up to the saloon and tied his old mule to the hitch rail.  As he stood there, brushing some of the dust from his face and clothes, a young gunslinger, John R., stepped out of the saloon with a gun in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other.

John looked at the old man and laughed, saying, “Hey old man, have you ever danced?”  The old man looked up at John and said, “No, I never did dance… never really wanted to.”

A crowd had gathered as John grinned and said,   “Well, you old fool, you’re gonna’ dance now,” and started shooting at the old man’s feet. The old prospector, not wanting to get a toe blown off, started hopping around like a flea on a hot skillet.  Everybody was laughing, fit to be tied.

When his last bullet had been fired, John, still laughing, holstered his gun and turned around to go back into the saloon.  The old man turned to his pack mule, pulled out a double-barreled shotgun, and cocked both hammers.  The loud clicks carried clearly through the desert air.

The crowd stopped laughing immediately.  John heard the sounds too, and he turned around very slowly.  The silence was almost deafening.  The crowd watched as the young gunman stared at the old timer and the large gaping holes of those twin barrels.

The barrels of the shotgun never wavered in the old man’s hands, as he quietly said, “Son, have you ever kissed a mule’s ass?”

John swallowed hard and said, “No sir….. but… I’ve always wanted to.”

There are a few lessons here:

• Never be arrogant.

• Don’t waste ammunition.

• Whiskey makes you think you’re smarter than you are.

• Always, always make sure you know who has the power.

• Don’t mess with older people, they didn’t get old by being stupid.

I just love a story with a happy ending, don’t you?

Don’t let the suffering this “waste of skin” has caused go unreported or unpunished. There are many of us who were simply too trusting, and subsequently embarrassed at our own naivete – Raygoza is the one who should be embarrassed. He’s the “young gunslinger” and the schoolyard bully.  He forgot, or more to the point, is probably too stupid to understand that the way we win in life is to give more than we expect to get back. He sucker punched us, and followed that with low blows.

Raygoza’s  “conman” skills will buy him some temporary thrills and pleasure (read his personal blog if you want to be sickened by this guy’s values, considering the source of his present wealth) but you, like I, know exactly what kind of news stories we’ll be seeing about him and his compadres in the future. He’s had some luck and has mistaken it for skill.  The law of attraction never fails.

Comments:

Mandarin 2010/03/09 at 13.29

Great post, very very striking and one to learn from. Thanks