The Fisherman and Businessman

The Pastor at my church told this great little story during a sermon a few weeks ago and she sent me a copy that I wanted to share with others. I'm not sure who the original author is, so I hope it's ok to publish it here on my blog. It goes like this...

A businessman visiting the pier of a small coastal village in Mexico noticed a small boat with just one fisherman pulling up to the dock. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The businessman complimented the fisherman on his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. "Only a little while," the fisherman responded.

"Why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish?"
"I have enough to support my family's needs."

The businessman then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

The fisherman replied, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, and stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my friends. I have a full and busy life."

The businessman scoffed, "I'm a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing, and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats and eventually have a whole fleet of boats. You would cut out the middleman and sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles and eventually to New York City, where you would run your expanding empire."

The fisherman asked, "But how long will all this take?"
The MBA replied, "Fifteen to twenty years."
"But then what," the fisherman asked.

The American laughed and said, "That's the best part! When the time is right, you would announce an initial public offering and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich; you would make millions."

"Millions?" the fisherman asked. "Then what?"

The American said, "Then you would retire and move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, and stroll into the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play guitar with your friends."

Cool songs with whistling part

Here's a totally off topic blog post. I wanted to write down some song titles I like that have a distinct whistling part. There are probably many more I'll jot down as I rehear them, but this is my list to start:

1) Todd Snider - Sunshine
2) Norah Jones - Little Room
3) Guns N Roses - Patience
4) The Scorpions - Wind of Change

Let me know if you have any favorites that you'd include in this list.

Most Equitable Divorce Proposal

I received this via an email chain and hate forwarding them on. But this one is good so adding it to the blog, enjoy!

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al:

We have stuck together since the late 1950's, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has run its course. Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.

Here is a model separation agreement:

Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.

We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell (You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them).

We'll keep the capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have your beloved homeless, homeboys, hippies and illegal aliens. We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and rednecks. We'll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood.

You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help provide them security.

We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values.. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N.. but we will no longer be paying the bill.

We'll keep the SUVs, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can find.

You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors. We'll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a right.

We'll keep The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the National Anthem. I'm sure you'll be happy to substitute Imagine, I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing, Kum Ba Ya or We Are the World.

We'll practice trickle down economics and you can give trickle up poverty your best shot. Since it often so offends you, we'll keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I'll bet you ANWAR which one of us will need whose help in 1-5 years.

Sincerely,
John J. Wall
Law Student and an American

P.S. Also, please take Barbara Streisand & Jane Fonda with you.