Last week, a good friend of mine wrote a piece called “Don’t Be a Social Media Debbie Downer” (see MarkFrisk.com). In it, he says “overdoing it on the negative 
is maybe not the way you want to go.” While ostensibly written for the social media space, he quickly adds the lesson applies to any space.
Today is Columbus Day. No one has suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous Debbie Downer Syndrome more than the man who discovered America. Almost every event, person, place or thing in the human record stands as a glass either half empty or half full. Throughout history, we’ve taken the “half full” approach when defining our heroes. Why?
The best answer I’ve seen lies within a 60+ year old movie directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and Henry Fonda called Fort Apache. In this classic western, Ford both unmasks and makes the Continue Reading “How Have You Rediscovered Christopher Columbus?”
The Cornucopia Tree
Now, as we all know, the word “cornucopia” comes from the Latin word meaning “horn of plenty.” In ancient mythology, it was said to produce an endless supply of food and drink. Even today, Americans display a cornucopia at their Thanksgiving table as a symbol of gratitude for all the Lord has given us.
Well, this cornucopia tree produced everything the man’s family needed to survive. From its branches grew food and drink, wood to build and heat their house, and even the clothes they wore.
(Yes, clothes. Don’t ask how the tree managed that. It just did.)
One day the cornucopia tree produced something it had never produced before—two identical eggs.
The man, now very old, saw them and understood their meaning. So he called his two sons.
“Boys,” he said, “this tree has given our family everything we have ever needed. Now it has Continue Reading “The Cornucopia Tree”