Friday, October 5, 2007

Why are there so many dead skunks anyway?

Somehow, today, the question seemed very profound. My daughter asked this question as we drove off to school the other morning. I told her there weren't more dead skunks than any other type of animal in the road. Yet she insisted she didn't notice any other dead animals in the road other than the stinky skunks. Subsequent mornings as we zoomed past a dozen or so squashed chimpmunks, squirls, and woodchucks, (which I tried pointing out to her as proof the skunk was an occasional occurence) all she noticed were the skunks.

I started thinking to my self that is so much like life....why do we always focus on and remember all the bad (stinky) stuff and seem to ignore the rest? How often do we stop and notice how great the grass smells after it's been freshly cut or how the ground smells after a warm spring rain? Our brains seem to be wired to flag with extra importance the negative and to only give a cursory glance to the positive. I must not allow myself to take all the good things for granted!