You are a carpenter,
and you are banging away with your trusty hammer.
The hammer is your friend, your ally.
Without that hammer, you could not do your job.
You could not be a carpenter.
You would be helpless.
And then someone taps you on the shoulder and you turn around.
And it's Mr. Rogers. . .
"Hello Mr. Rogers!"
you say,
" What are you doing here?"
He points and says,
in that polite way he has,
"That hammer you have there----
you know that could be used as a weapon don't you?"
You look at the hammer.
"This?
This isn't a weapon.
It's my primary tool."
"But it's a weapon just the same.
You can hit someone by accident if you are not paying attention.
Or you can break someones skull open with it deliberately."
You look at the hammer.
"Yeah? So? What is your point?"
"You have to take responsability for that, you know.
You must only use that weapon for nice, polite, constructive purposes.
You have to do only nice things with it."
He smiles.
"OK?
So we can all be neighbors?
will you be careful with that hammer?"
"Yeah, sure. Fine.
It can be used as a weapon, OK?
I'll be careful."
"That's good,"
says a smiling Mr. Rogers.
"We all have to be polite to each other.
No matter what we are actually thinking,
we should be nice and say nice things and not offend anyone by hitting them with hammers.
OK?"
And you realize the truth of Mr. Rogers' words,
because at that moment you're contemplating what it would be like to crush his skull with your hammer. . . .
But that would not be nice.
Not at all. . .
---anonymous