MINDSET SHIFT

How Does One Go About Finding an Audience?

A fable borrowed from Arnold Lobel

There once was a positive little grasshopper who saw beauty in everything around him. He was just an ordinary little grasshopper, but the extraordinary thing about the little guy was that he was the creation of an American author named Arnold Lobel who wrote lovely stories for children. His books were published by HarperCollins.

Now that Grasshopper and this Grasshopper that I’m about to tell you about are one and the same. Only, I’ve added my own flair to the classic story.

Raise your hand if you know who I’m referring to or continue reading to find out.

Let’s begin

Positive little Grasshopper had an insatiable longing to learn and had spent many hours reading the classics. The voracious reader acquired much knowledge from those books and felt a desire to share what he knew with other individuals.

“Yes,” he said, stroking his chin, “good knowledge needs to be shared. I’ll go find me some people — er, creatures, who are ready to learn.”

Being alone for too long, he longed to see how others lived and behaved and thought that for sure he too could acquire new knowledge from those who shared this world with.

“For sure,” he said, “there must be experiences that one cannot learn from books.”

His idea excited him. He thought hard about how he could do this give ’n take exchange without seeming intrusive.

“I know,” he susurrated to himself one day, “I will find me a road and follow it to wherever it leads.”

And so it was that Grasshopper found himself a road to follow. It was long and dusty. From his perch up on a tree, he noticed how the road curved around hills, went up on some and slanted down into valleys.

“Perfect.” He nodded approvingly, thinking it was the best road he’d ever seen. And so, very early that morning he set off on a long journey.

He skipped happily in some places, excited about the other creatures he imagined he’d meet and walked rather quickly on others.

Something caught his attention

By and by he came upon a sign glued on the side of a tall tree. Curiously, he leaned in to read.

MORNING IS BEST, the sign said in LARGE letters.

He rubbed his chin and nodded. Thinking how true those words were he continued walking only to find another sign.

This new sign said in LARGE letters: THREE CHEERS FOR MORNING.

He wiped a little sweat from his forehead and clapped his hands three times to indicate that he agreed with the sign.

His claps alerted a group of creatures who hurriedly came over to see who the clapper was. To Grasshopper’s great surprise he saw them carrying more signs all in praise of morning. He was very impressed.

“Good morning,” he said to the happy looking group.

“Yes,” replied the one with the sign that read MAKE MINE MORNING. Then in a gruff voice continued, “Yes, you are right. Every morning is a good morning!”

“Right.” Grasshopper loved what he heard, and clapped his hands three more times as he had done before.

The group set down their signs and they too clapped in bouts of threes. “Yay,” they cheered, happy to have found someone new to let into their group. One by one they shook Grasshopper’s hand, saying things like,

“I knew it, “I could tell, “Me too, “With such a kind face as yours… “Another morning lover, “Yay!”

Inclusion

They picked up their signs and huddled close to make a wreath of flowers. They wrapped the flower-lei around Grasshopper’s neck and gave him his very own sign to carry around. That sign said in LARGE letters, MORNING IS TOPS.

They clapped and recited every cheer Grasshopper had ever heard about morning. Some turned somersaults, some stood on their heads; they all danced and sang and spelled the word MORNING, over and over and over again.

Grasshopper was happy to have found such a joyful group. He was sure these new friends would make for a great audience. And, he was ready to learn the things they’d teach him. The only problem was that these joyful creatures were a bit too noisy with their cheers that never waned.

“Three cheers for Morning “Morning is tops “Make mine morning “Morning this, morning that…”

Grasshopper was starting to feel dizzy from the nonstop cheering and dancing. He moved to the side, took a deep breath, and sighed long.

Then in a fairly loud voice proclaimed to the group, “I love afternoon too.”

Immediately, the group went very quiet. Their jaws fell. They were speechless, all of them.

Someone in the back cut through the crowd and made a bee-line to Grasshopper. He pointed a finger to Grasshopper’s face, opened his mouth once or twice and then slurred, “What-did-you-say?”

The others drew close to listen.

Cheerily as he could, for that was his character, Grasshopper repeated, loudly but slowly so there was no mistaking his words, “I love afternoon too.”

The group looked at him stupefied. He said it again, slowly and this time he added, “And I love night too. Yes, night is very nice.”

Well, that did it! They grabbed the wreath of flowers and snatched the sign from Grasshopper who could not understand for the life of him what was wrong about what he had said honestly.

They called him derogatory names and stepped on his toes, they were so furious.

This time, their remarks were angry. “Ingrate, “Dummy, “Get out, “Just go, “We don’t want you here.”

With a heavy heart, he tiptoed away from them and when he was far enough he glanced back to watch them marching away. What would it take to be able to talk to them about the beauty of afternoons or nights if they were so bullheaded about the only thing they knew?

“Too bad,” he whispered under his breath, “they’re not ready.”

And he went on down the long and dusty road.

Disclaimer:

• I have yet to read the classics.
• This is one more of the many great books I read to my boys. If you recognized the story, I applaud you. This is my rendition of the undoubtedly beautiful words I inhaled from the books of the one and only, Arnold Lobel in his Level 2 of An I Can Read Book which I love reading to myself. And so, this is how I grow myself.
• If you’ve never read Arnold Lobel’s books then you haven’t seen his illustrations. I invite you to read his biography as I believe no one should be deprived of such beauty.

THANK YOU FOR READING I Wish You Miracles