The Parable of the Coo Coo Clock.

Now it is seldom that I am accused of fostering a good idea, or for that matter any ideas, let alone coming up with anything that remotely resembles a pearl of wisdom, but I sit here before you so accused.

I was chatting with an old friend here as of late and he was telling me of his new-found dilemma. He was contemplating entering into a new relationship, but was more than a little leary as his last couple had ended so poorly. "What if this one doesn't work out? I don't know if I can take it again," he said with a groan.

"Well, it's kind of like buying a new coo coo clock," I responded.

"Huh?" he raised one eyebrow and gave me a look that told me he wasn't following my train of thought at all. For me, this is not an uncommon reaction to most of the things I say. "How so?"

"Well picture it this way: You are in the shop and you are thinking about buying a new coo coo clock. You pick out a nice one that has a wonderful chime and the carving is beautiful, but you hesitate to buy it because you know that at some point in the future it is going to break. It might break as soon as you leave the store, or it might last long enough that your great-grandchildren will get to grow up listening to it's wonderful sound, but some day, that clock is going to break."

"Yeah, so?"

"I don't know about you, but I'd rather take the chance, and perhaps listen to that clock for years, than to sit in silence and wonder how much richer my life might have been with that pleasant little chime every quarter hour."

He scratched his cheek and blew out a long plume of smoke from his cigarette and thought a minute. "That's quite a parable," was all he could say. After that he turned and began to walk away.

"Where are you going?" I asked with a little surprise, as I thought our conversation was just getting started.

"I'm going to go buy a coo coo clock," he said with a smile and a wave.

Doc