Page 17 - Contrast1971Spring

Animals

I saw a robin flying care-free across the sky
Lifting its tiny body through the billowing clouds.
I turned to a friend who was walking with me
And asked him just why this bird had wings.
He answered

"All of the animals in the forest are dumb.
All have no purpose in life. They just exist-
With no will to prevail, yet they are much happier than you and I.
Yes, they are much happier than us."

I later saw a grey squirrel climbing from tree to tree
Entwining his sleek body amid the forest green.
I asked an old man who was standing close by
Why this squirrel was playing so happily.
He turned to me and' said

"Son, all oTthe animals in the forest are dumb.
All have no purpose in life. They just exist-
With no will to prevail, yet they are much happier than you and I.
Yes, they are much happier than us."

A close friend of mine lost his life at war, the news came today.
He left behind a wife, two kids, mother, and father.
His oldest son, barely four, came up to me
And asked why his father wou Id not come home anymore.
I took him aside, wiped away his tears, and from the bottom of.

my heart I said
"Bobby, all of the people on Earth are smart.
All have their purpose in life.
We all live well with a will to prevail.
We push to get ahead and no price is too great.
But the animals are much happier than us."

D. H. Emerson