Too Much Go

Too Much Go

THINKAMAJIG:  “Back and forth”  (move hand back and forth)
DOOHICKEY:  “Up and down”  (move hand up and down)
WHATCHAMACALLIT:  “In and out”  (cup one hand in semi-circle & dip other hand in and back out.
CONTRAPTION:  all sounds at once.

Ever since the beginning of time, men have been competing with each other, each one trying to invent something that will go farther, higher, or longer than any other thing.  There are THINGAMAJIGS and there are DOOHICKEYS and even WHATCHAMACALLITS.  Nobody really knows what each of these CONTRAPTIONS are supposed to do.

For instance, a THINGAMAJIG could be almost anything, and it probably wouldn’t even have to have a moving part in it.  The same goes for a DOOHICKEY or a WHATCHAMACALLIT.  Whenever a man sees a CONTRAPTION which has a THINGAMAJIG, a DOOHICKEY, or a WHATCHAMACALLIT on it, then his mind immediately goes to work trying to invent something that will outdo that CONTRAPTION.

The man who really fouls this all up is the one who keeps trying to invent a better THINGAMAJIG, DOOHICKEY, and WHATCHAMACALLIT.  For in the end, he’ll probably be competing against himself.  One such ambitious man created a CONTRAPTION upon which there was a THINGAMAJIG and a DOOHICKEY and a WHATCHAMACALLIT.  Well after watching it work, he decided that the THINGAMAJIG needed to go faster and the DOOHICKEY needed to go higher, and the WHATCHAMACALLIT needed to go deeper.  So he set about to correct it.  However, in doing so, he completely destroyed the whole CONTRAPTION, for when he made the THINGAMAJIG go faster, it hit the DOOHICKEY which he had made go higher, which, in turn, shot right into the WHATCHAMACALLIT as it drove deeper, and the result being the whole CONTRAPTION quit going, for each part had knocked the other part out.

So, in making things go in this world, let’s always remember that some things are better as is, and, remember, we must have the strength to change those things we can, the serenity to accept those we can’t change, and the wisdom to know the difference.  If we remember this, we won’t become like the man to tried to better the CONTRAPTION and merely ended up with the THINGAMAJIG and the DOOHICKEY and the WHATCHAMACALLIT all working against each other.  If we remember this, we can really make things go!

-Southeastern Massachusetts Cluster Council Pow Wow 1997