The One-arm Fiddler (In my imagination)
It is hard to imagine a one-arm fiddler—unless you can see in his eyes the determination to overcome. He is a winner because he never says, “I quit.” He never uses “I can’t.” He doesn’t know the words, “I failed.” He is a super-achiever in the face of heavy odds against him. It is his single-minded determination to succeed that makes him a model for all of us.
Another veteran wounded in Afghanistan was on today’s news. He lost both legs and the doctors predicted he would be hospitalized for two years. He was released in only four months with two artificial “legs.” He returned home to his young family and a crowd that honored him for his self-less service and horrendous sacrifice. He is a “One-arm Fiddler,” for sure! In our imaginations, we begin watching such a person play his fiddle, and we sense that he moves to music we do not hear! (We soon begin to move to the music he helps us hear.)
Local people are so moved by this returning FIDDLER, they are raising money to build his family a new home, on one floor, with wide doors so he can use a wheelchair inside.
We appreciate and honor every ONE-ARM FIDDLER as an over-comer, a remarkable human specimen, a true champion, and I love to imagine hearing the music from such a fiddle.
If you want to hear the special music played by a ONE-ARM FIDDLER, think of one, close your eyes and listen for thirty seconds. If you cannot hear his/her music, consider taking a course in “Imagining through Imagination” at a junior college.
Besides his music, I imagine that from time to time he also has good things to say. Sometimes people send the ONE-ARM FIDDLER things to help cheer him/her. (See if you can tell the difference between what the Fiddler says and what others have said.)
“The road to success is always under construction.”
When a sixth-grader was asked what is the first thing to do when kissing a girl said, “At my age all of the girls are taller than I am, so I ask her to sit down.”
A man was teaching his wife how to hunt deer. Thinking he had told her everything, he put her on a deer-stand and went to his. When he heard a shot he returned to see her deer. He heard a man saying, “Lady, you can have the deer, I just want my saddle off of it.”
“There is only one way UP!”
Little boy: “I hate girls. But if I ever quit hating girls, that blond over there is the first one I am going to quit hating.”
Keep listening for the music of a ONE-ARM FIDDLER and life will become better and simpler. Once you hear that music, your ‘everything’ will become easier!
On June 13: “Humor in Ancient Biblical Times: An imaginary interview with “Tung-in-Cheek,” the Ancient Chinese Biblical Scholar.”
