Chicken Little has been very busy since the beginning of the year (possibly even before). She’s been doing a good job in the media telling us that the “sky [economy] is falling,” and it has been very hard to tune her out. I certainly practice right thought about her warnings of doom, but recently I noticed a change in my spending behavior. This change has made me wonder whether she is getting to my subconcious.
I found myself in the midst of this behavioral change at the gas station. I never pay for gas with cash. I always use my credit card, but for the last month I have used cash for the fuel that goes in my car. I realized quickly that I’ve been taking that chicken to heart. I’ve been using cash as a mechanism to tighten my financial belt, because I have known that when I use cash I spend less.
I’m not one to believe an alarmist like Chicken Little until I can see the danger for myself. This is a protective mechanism really. It allows me to control irrational behavior that may come from someone who tells me there is danger when, in fact, there is none. The flip side to this mechanism is that sometimes the danger is there and I react slowly to it.
As hard as I try to recognize negativism, to elude it whenever possible, I suppose that its existence does swirl around like the wind in a storm. I may realize the wind, but sometimes I don’t see it until I’ve looked in the mirror. Chicken Little and her banter have been circulating through the sky but I haven’t noticed my own economic reaction to them until my time at the gas pump, a symbolic mirror of sorts.
Chicken Little has been gaining momentum in her recruitment of naysayers and dissenters. She marches to tell the king that the sky is surely falling, and those behind her grow in number; some even squawk to garner their own attention, becoming little hens themselves.
I won’t be a part of her motley crew because I think the king already knows and is doing his best to prevent an economic calamity. Those with a positive outlook need only wake up to see that the sun rises in a sky clearly unbroken.
Copyright © Tyler Gant 2009
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