I wrote this ridiculous story a while back as an idea for kids book (chose the wrong Direction…but that’s another story). I thought it was worth sharing. It may just be ridiculous enough to put a mental image in the back of your head that you can use to shake off and laugh at a mistake you make one day:
Please Don’t Kick My Head
Nobody knows why, really.
The grown-ups of this town all walk around
with their heads hung down.
Some grown-ups have their
heads hanging down so low
that they actually drag on the ground.
It’s sad really, but all
we know is that the more
mistakes someone makes
the lower they should hang their head.
Since everybody makes mistakes then
everybody has their head hanging down
when they get older. Sometimes they
even trip over their own head
when they are trying to walk. It is
all very sad. But that’s the way it is.
One day a grown-up was at a
soccer game and their head
was hanging down on the ground
next to where the ball landed.
A kid accidentally kicked the
grown-ups head because he thought
it was the soccer ball by mistake.
The kid felt really bad and he started
hanging his head down a little bit too,
since he made a big mistake.
Then one day a stranger
came to the town. He was a grown-up,
but his head was straight up high.
Everyone wanted to know how
he had gone his whole life
without making any mistakes.
Someone finally asked the stranger
what was his secret to never
making a mistake.
The stranger laughed so hard he
fell over. He kept laughing
and laughing and he couldn’t stop
laughing. Everyone stared.
The stranger finally stopped laughing
long enough to tell everyone that he has
made thousands of mistakes. More mistakes
than he could even remember.
Someone asked him why his head
wasn’t hanging all the way to the floor if he
had really made all of those mistakes.
The stranger said that
was the silliest thing he ever heard.
Now a few of the grown-ups started
to pick their heads up a little bit.
They were curious.
The stranger explained that making mistakes
was no reason to hang your head in shame.
He told them that he learned from
his mistakes instead of worrying
about them or hanging his head in shame.
The stranger went on to tell them about
some of his biggest mistakes and what
he learned from them.
After hearing that, more people
begin to lift their heads up, anxious to
hear more. They had actually made some
of the same mistakes that the stranger made,
except they got very upset and hung their
heads down.
One of the oldest grown-ups in the
town tried to tell everyone that this
was an outrage. That anyone who made
that many mistakes should hang their
head all the way to the floor. But
this time, no one was listening to the old
grown-up. They were more interested
in the stranger.
The stranger explained that he
never tries to make mistakes, but he does.
He thinks about the mistake for a few minutes
and remembers the mistake if it can help
him do better the next time. But he
doesn’t sit around worrying about it.
Everyone liked this stranger and wanted
to hold their heads up high like he did.
The grown-ups started to lift their heads
up more and more every day. And sometimes
they would make mistakes, but then they
thought about the stranger and learned from
their mistakes instead of hanging their heads down.
The grown-ups were getting happier
every day and it was very rare that
anyone tripped over their own head or
accidentally kicked someone else’s head
by mistake. But even when they did,
they would just say sorry and try harder,
instead of hanging their heads down.
They were happy.
The Map Habit has been redesigned and moved it to it’s own hosted domain. One of the reasons for doing this is to have more control of the layout as well as the ability to add additional elements not available in the hosted WordPress package. My goal for the design of The Map Habit is to create a sanctuary of information in an attractive and accessible way, and I hope that you find the new design to be a step in that direction.
THE MAP HABIT 