The Balloon Salesman

The Balloon Salesman

Let me tell you a story.

Once upon a time there was a balloon salesman at the county fair. Every day he would walk around the fairgrounds selling the kids a colorful balloon. 

A small young dark-skinned boy stood watching our balloon man with great fascination.  When things slowed down, the balloon man would release one balloon up into the air; first a red one, then a blue one.  The balloons would rise high and float out of sight.

After each release the crowds would swarm around him, and business would be brisk. 

Once, when things slowed down, our young boy approached the salesman and asked rather timidly, “Mister, if you released a black balloon would it raise high up in the sky like all the other balloons?”

With great insight our balloon-man said, “Son, it doesn’t matter what the color is on the outside.  It’s what’s inside that counts.”

Jeff MacNelly wrote a Shoe comic strip a few years ago that showed Shoe, the crusty newspaper editor, standing on a baseball mound with his catcher.

His catcher said:  “You’ve got to have faith in your curve ball.”

Shoe thought to himself, “It’s easy for him to say that. When it comes to believing in myself, I’m an agnostic.”

It really does boil down to what’s inside that counts.  Thoughts are things.

Think about that!

P Michael Biggs

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