Gullible Gulls

I read this story from an article in the Ensign when I was on the plane flying to Florida. It's been in my head ever since then, and many of you have probably already read it, but for those of you that haven't, it's something to think about.

It is from a magazine our Church puts out, called the Ensign, and it is a reprinting of a talk that a man named Marion G. Romney gave back in the eighties sometime (he died in 1988), and he is quoting a story he read in the Reader's Digest. I hope that is not too confusing. Anyway, here is the story (first sentence in Marion G. Romney's words, the rest taken from the Readers Digest):

"I clipped the following article from the Reader’s Digest some time ago. It reads:

“In our friendly neighbor city of St. Augustine great flocks of sea gulls are starving amid plenty. Fishing is still good, but the gulls don’t know how to fish. For generations they have depended on the shrimp fleet to toss them scraps from the nets. Now the fleet has moved. …

“The shrimpers had created a Welfare State for the … sea gulls. The big birds never bothered to learn how to fish for themselves and they never taught their children to fish. Instead they led their little ones to the shrimp nets.

“Now the sea gulls, the fine free birds that almost symbolize liberty itself, are starving to death because they gave in to the ‘something for nothing’ lure! They sacrificed their independence for a handout.

“A lot of people are like that, too. They see nothing wrong in picking delectable scraps from the tax nets of the U.S. Government’s ‘shrimp fleet.’ But what will happen when the Government runs out of goods? What about our children of generations to come?

“Let’s not be gullible gulls. We … must preserve our talents of self-sufficiency, our genius for creating things for ourselves, our sense of thrift and our true love of independence.” (“Fable of the Gullible Gull,” Reader’s Digest, Oct. 1950, 32.) For the rest of this article, click here.

side story: While I was typing this Hallie found a Hershey's kiss from I don't know where. I looked down and saw her holding this melting lump of chocolate. Of course I grabbed her hand to take it from her a. because it's too much chocolate at one time b. because it's messy - when all of a sudden, she jerked it straight into her mouth. The whole thing. She's fast, and strong, and really loves her chocolate.

Anyway, we have a wonderful system of government in this country, and if you listened to Obama's speech last Tuesday then you know that he has lots of plans to make things better. I hope they work. In the meantime, I know that Devin and I are going to do what we can to make sure that we have what we need if/when hard times come to us. We are buying extra cans of food each week to begin our food storage, and of course we're saving money each month.

That's my two cents.

Comments

  1. Your post reminded me of this quote.

    “Many more people could ride out the storm-tossed waves in their economic lives if they had their . . . supply of food . . . and were debt-free. Today we find that many have followed this counsel in reverse: they have at least a year’s supply of debt and are food-free.”

    —President Thomas S. Monson, “That Noble Gift—Love at Home,” Church News, May 12, 2001, 7.

    I am glad that you and Devin are going to try to be debt free with a year's supply of food and not the other way around. :)

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  2. Yeah I was actually going to put that quote up, too. But then Hallie started needing my attention (the side note story about the chocolate) and I decided it was long enough. Thanks for putting it up for me!!

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  3. What a great family!!!!!!! I am also glad that Hallie is learning to hang on to the really important stuff in life!

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  4. Hey! You guys rock! Thanks for posting the truth for anyone to read. I was searching trying to find the original reader's digest article, but couldn't find it anywhere and came across your blog. It's amazing to see the reality of the fable of the gullible gulls today! My question is, am I a gullible gull? I testify that President Monson knows more than President Obama, because he is a prophet of God, and he is the one to listen to first. I do love President Obama, he is my brother, and therefore how can I comfortably ridicule a being made after the similitude of God? (James 3:9-10)

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  5. Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

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