Consequences

Deceptively cute, isn't she...

 When I was a little girl, we had an old porch swing on our front porch, with huge, sheltering forsythia bushes all around.  I used to love to swing, madly, feeling the wind in my hair.  It was like flying!

One day I was enthusiastically swinging back and forth and hopped off the swing at its apex.  And WHACK, it swung back and nailed me right in the tender 5-year-old shins!

I was furious, insulted that it should do such a thing, and hauled off and kicked it a really good one right back.

 "That'll teach you," I thought!

Guess what happened?  Yes, the pendulum swung back again and nailed me a second time, harder.  Equal force to my revenge kick.

And that's when I learned a very clear lesson about the consequences of hasty action, revenge...and temper.

Would that some politicians could learn that same lesson...