Things I experience with my children are a constant source of inspiration for me. Following is the text from a book called the "The Little Red Hen", by Byron Barton. There is a moral to this story that even adults can appreciate. So, here goes.

Once there were four friends----a pig, a duck, a cat, and a little red hen. The little red hen had three baby chicks.

One day the little red hen was pecking in the ground, and she found some seeds.

She went to her three friends and asked, "Who will help me plant these seeds?" "Not I," squealed the pig. "Not I," quacked the duck. "Not I," meowed the cat.

"Then I will plant the seeds," said the little red hen. And she did. And the seeds sprouted and grew into large stalks of wheat.

Then the little red hen asked her three friends, "Who will help me cut these stalks of wheat?" "Not I," meowed the cat. "Not I," squealed the pig. "Not I," quacked the duck.

"Then I will cut the wheat," said the little red hen. And she did.

Then the little red hen asked her friends, "Who will help me thresh this wheat?" "Not I," squealed the pig. "Not I," quacked the duck. "Not I," meowed the cat.

"Then I will threash the wheat," said the little red hen. And she did.

Then the little red hen asked her friends, "Who will help me grind these grains of wheat into flour?" "Not I," squealed the pig. "Not I," quacked the duck. "Not I," meowed the cat.

"Then I will grind the wheat into flour," said the little red hen. And she did.

Then the little red hen asked her three friends, "Who will help me make this flour into bread?" "Not I," meowed the cat. "Not I," squealed the pig. "Not I," quacked the duck.

"Then I will make the flour into bread," she said. And she did.

Then the little red hen called to her friends, "Who will help me eat this bread?" "I will," quacked the duck. "I will," meowed the cat. "I will," squealed the pig.

"Oh no," said the little red hen. "We will eat the bread."

And they did----the little red hen and her three little chicks.

Sitting here debating on if I feel like finishing my assignments, which are due tomorrow. I've been taking online classes, and it's great to be able to attend class in the middle of the night when there's not enough hours in the day to get to a campus. Also, I was just staring at the pictures of four cute little kitties on my calendar hanging above my computer, and it makes think about my cat. I have a twelve year old female seal point siamese named cocoa. I wonder what she thinks of life. Does she get bored just sitting around the house all day sleeping? Do animals have a level of consciousness similar to humans? I wonder some of these things right now because for one of my classes I'm preparing to write a paper on the Terri Schiavo case. I need to come up with an argument supporting whatever point of view I chose to take on the case, and how the system could be changed to better handle these situations. I wonder if Terri was aware of her surroundings, and all the controversy over her life. Wouldn't it interesting if someone could invent device to read brain signals that would relay any communication activity going on in the neurological functioning of the brain, and to be able to decipher it? If a person has any level of awareness of their surroundings the device could measure the neurological functioning of this awareness, and interpret the measurements to be used in understanding what is going on in their brains. However, maybe that wouldn't be such a great invention. Just think what the government would do with a device such as that. Nothing would able to stop those with malicious intents like terrorists from using a device like that to cause great harm. Anyway, I'm just rambling on now. So, I'll say good-night for now.