Planning ahead only works if you control the outcome.

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The unusually quiet bird watched the squirrel repeatedly half hop, half run from the oak tree to the flower garden near the house. After seeing the bushy-tailed rodent make several round trips the crow’s curiosity surfaced. “What are you doing,” he asked with his raspy voice.

“I’m burying acorns for the future,” the squirrel proudly responded.

“That does not sound like a pleasant use of your time on such a beautiful weekend day.”

“Well, this way I’ll have them when supplies are limited and I need them,” he explained to the crow who was drinking from the bird bath.

“There are several acorns beneath the oak tree. Why spend so much effort to relocate them?” he asked between sips of water. “When times become lean around here do you intend to share your saved stash?

“That was not my intent,” the obviously breathless squirrel gasped. “I remember what happened to my father,” he mumbled in response to a memory.

“What happened to you father,” the crow’s curiosity was renewed.

“When my father grew too old to hunt for fresh acorns he knew his future was assured; he saved sufficient acorns to tide him over for the remainder of his life. Unfortunately that did not work out.”

“Why not?” the crow assumed the foolish father had over spent his cache and was unable to restore it.

“The woman who maintained the flower bed discovered the cache of acorns and realized there were many creatures whose futures were in jeopardy. She failed to consider my father’s efforts in her efforts to assist those who had not planned ahead, but the real tragedy occurred when the cache was exhausted.”

“Then everyone went hungry, right?” added the crow, who was now quite interested in the epic tale.

“No the woman was not going to let that happen. She began to search other locations where caches might be located. As she discovered them she again redistributed the saved items among the less ambitious creatures.

“So her plan worked out, everyone survived the less abundant period.”

“Indeed the immediate crisis was averted, but inadvertently she created a long-term crisis. As she ran out of alternative cashes she began to collect all of the new acorns from beneath the oak tree, and made them available to those creatures she previously helped. There was no source for the ambitious squirrels to invest in the future, thus no cache or alternative savings to raid; her only resort would be to borrow from other oak trees and the creatures who depended on those supplies of acorns.

“That’s just not right,” the crow concluded.

“Aren’t you going to collect some seeds and cache them away?” the squirrel asked as he passed the crow on the way back to the oak tree.

“Naw,” the crow responded. “The woman who ends the flower garden always gives me some of her supply. I am just going to enjoy the weekend.”

By Robert L. Scarry

From: United States

Twitter: usnavy1990bob

Facebook URL: facebook.com/robert.scarry.3