The Engine, The Driver

Three race cars sat on the track.
The first race car was but a shell on wheels, its engine removed. The driver pushed the eviscerated car to the starting line, hopped into the seat, grabbed the wheel -- and bobbed back and forth behind the steering column like a wind-up toy. The eviscerated shell of the racer rocked gently on the asphalt.
The second race car was a Formula One racer, with a massive engine -- but no driver. The racer idled in neutral, its throbbing engine powerless to budge it even one inch.
The last race car was a small convertible with a four-cylinder engine, but a capable driver. As the green flag fell, he gunned his engine, shifted into first, and leapt down the racetrack, rubber burning behind him on the road.
In seconds he was gone -- riding a cloud of white, beyond the far turn.
Thus, emotion is our engine - but we must remain the driver.

April 26, 2014, excerpt from The Parables of Reason © 2007-2014 (Chapter 3, "Emotion's Mastery"), by Frank H. Burton, Executive Director, The Circle of Reason.

Aphorism of the Week

The handmaiden of faith must be doubt.

Dedicated to the bipartisan effort of Minnesota state GOP and DFL legislators to end firearm ownership by legally-convicted stalkers or domestic abusers, and to disallow firearm possession for people under temporary restraining orders for alleged abuse; and to the law's spearheading by two ex-"street-cop" Legislators, one Republican and one Democrat: Rep. Dan Schoen and Rep. Tony Cornish. Also dedicated in supplication to the NRA, that they consider following the lead of the Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance, which dropped its initial objection to the bill and agreed with the principle of "making sure the guns get out of the house" of domestic abusers.