I simply couldnt resist picking this story off a book. This is one of the best bad stories i have ever read. There is a lesson in here somewhere but i am missing it;)

THE LITTLEST DEVIL (Steve Boynton)


Source: Chicken Shit for the soul 2 by David Fisher.


Of all the devils in creation, he was the smallest one and had always been so. At school, all the other young devils would make fun of him and he would get angry; but because they were bigger than him they had bigger powers, so when he tried to call down the fire on them, the flames were no bigger than a match and the other devils would easily blow them out. When he tried to spin a hurricane, it would be but a small breeze they barely noticed. When he called forth a flood, it was barely a trickle.


Even when he was fully grown, his two horns barely stuck out of his forehead. When he graduated from the University of Devils, he was determined to do worse than all his classmates, but he soon discovered that many people would not give him a chance. Employers wanted big devils capable of producing major storms, of blowing the tops off volcanoes and shaking the earth. They wanted devils who could make the stock market crash and spread plague and create great droughts.


Finally the littlest devil found a kindly old devil in the office of regional wars willing to give him a chance to run one region on earth that nobody cared about at all. When wars started there, nobody tried to stop them. Often nobody even knew that they had started. The pay wasn’t good but for the littlest devil this was a chance he had been waiting for to prove his ability to do really bad things

.

He did just what he had been taught in school. He gave food and shelter to one side and starved the other. He gave guns to the starving side but not to the other side and then he created a confrontation and waited.


The result was terrible. The two sides negotiated a peace treaty in which they shared the food and the guns. The littlest devil was fired in shame. People laughed at him.


The littlest devil tried everything he could to make people hate him but he just couldn’t do it. Even the freelance jobs he got didn’t work out well. Once he was hired to create a small tidal wave and ended up providing the perfect conditions for a surfing competition. Another time he was hired just to make it rain enough to wash out a big golf tournament but he got his dates mixed up and it rained just in time to make the entire course lush and green when the tournament began.


The littlest devil was so unhappy. He had no fire in his eyes. Maybe he just wasn’t cut out to be a devil. He thought, maybe he should go into another profession. Maybe he should be a lawyer.

But one day, as he was sitting all alone, an old devil saw him there and asked,

“What’s the problem young devil?’

“Just everything. Nothing I do turns out bad. Every time I try to create a disaster it turns out to be a disaster. I can’t make anybody hate me.


The old devil chuckled. “You know, when I was just getting into this business, I had a similar problem. It seemed like no matter what I did, somehow it turned out wrong. One summer I made this wonderful heat wave, it was hotter than here, and then somebody went and invented air-conditioning!


And when I started a flu epidemic, somebody else discovered a flu vaccine. It was very tough.


The littlest devil was intrigued. “Then what did you do?”


The old devil leaned down and said softly, “that’s when I realized you dint need to do really big things. Those people down there are very clever for human beings. If I did something really big, it got their attention and they did something to stop it. So instead, I started doing small things, and I found that small things eventually became big things, but by the time they do, it’s too late to stop them.”


“Like what?”


“Who do you think made it so easy to get a divorce?” the old devil stood up proudly. “That’s right. You are looking at him. By the time they figured it out, it was too late. It was more widespread and affected more people than an epidemic.


The littlest devil looked at him with wonder. And then he set out determined to do some good bad things. Think small, he reminded himself, think very small. And he thought and he thought and he thought the smallest thing he could think of was – a tiny flea.


A flea? What harm could he possibly cause with a flea? He wondered. And as much as he thought about it, he couldn’t come up with that answer, but sometimes he realized he just had to have faith in Satan that things would turn out badly. A flea, he decided firmly, that’s how he would get started.


It was a hot summer evening down on earth. The littlest devil searched until he found a smiling dog. Then, just as he had learned in freshman spells 101, he pressed all the right buttons and created one small flea.


It wasn’t much of a flea, but it was a flea. And as the dog was walking down the street, the littlest devil made his flea bite that dog as hard as he possibly could.


The dog yelped and ran into the street.


A car driving down the street swerved to avoid the dog and slammed into a parked car.


The parked car went crashing into a light pole and hit it so hard that it made it almost fall down.


The falling light pole stretched the wires until they tore loose. In the power station, bells went off and all the power going through those wires was diverted to another system.


The other system was already operating at full capacity when the additional power began surging through the wires. This overloaded the system and sparks began flying. The engineers had to shut it down.


But when they shut down this generator, other systems in faraway places that were connected to it also became overloaded and had to be shut down. House by house, street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, town by tow, city by city, state by state, the entire country lost all its power.


Lights went out and television sets went dark and refrigerators turned off so all the food began melting; computers stopped computing, cordless telephones wouldn’t work, and the traffic lights blinked off and people drove right through them and had accidents.


All the devils watched this happening. This was truly a terrible thing, they thought with delight. And then they wondered who could have done such a grand thing? When they learned that this had been the work of the littlest devil, at first they couldn’t believe it. No one thought he would ever do anything bad.


But finally all the big devils apologized to him and told him that while he might be small in size, he was a very big devil!


The littlest devil was never sad again, for he had learnt the most important lesson: Bad things can also come in small packages.

THE ICE MAN

I cannot believe a diabolical killer of more than a hundred people inspired me to write this. Yet, here I am writing about Richard Kuklinski – A mafia hitman with a double life and one of the most notorious killers of all time. He murdered his victims brutally, ingeniously and without the slightest remorse.

I just finished a book on him by Philip Carlo titled “The Ice Man.” The book is gripping to say the least and it led me to watch his interviews on the internet. (Search and you’ll find enough videos and information on him).

Richard came from a family that gave him no love, just severe abuse and trauma. Outside of home was no better as he was targeted by bullies, one of whom he did end up killing. He simply did not experience anything “good” that he can look back upon, no family, no love, no friends, no mentors – and the result? No emotions but an all consuming rage and twisted perceptions of people and the world.

Around this time, I was also watching motivational speaker Ben Zanders talks. In one of them he says that make it a habit to give everybody an A grade - from Taxi Drivers to waitresses to mother in laws. In his eyes, everybody is an A student.

Also, I was reading about Anne frank and her quotes on life that inspired me put them up on February’s blog (I do go all over the place eh?)

Anyway, I was thinking what A would I give Richard Kuklinski and I realized I do not have an answer to that question. Only Richard can answer that had he had help to look within himself at the right moment.

I will not excuse or support a single killing here. I do feel he deserved what he got in the end…a long stint in prison. I am just looking at this man from different window.

I would probably give him an A for his care and concern for his family (wife and three kids) in his own screwed up way…considering he never knew what it meant to care for anyone.

I would give him an A for his calm demeanor (devoid of emotions one may say, but enviable nonetheless).

I would give him an A for mostly killing the scum of the earth most times (though not an excuse to play the god of death)

I would give him an A for sparing women and children.

I would give him an A for his generosity that we get glimpses of when reading the book.

If I could make up five alternate careers for him based on what I read and heard if he was made differently and if he was inclined to take the right path, then these would be it:

1. A counselor – who better to understand disturbed individuals than a person who has been disturbed himself?

2. A pediatrician – for his detailed, organized, methodical ways and attitude towards children.

3. An Actor – His sense of humor, his looks would have suited certain types of roles.

4. In the police force – His risk taking behavior, fearlessness, wanting to put a wrong right with the right intentions would have made him a reliable cop or some kind of an agent.

5.A bouncer at a bar…on second thoughts maybe not.

As Anne frank says, "Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness. People are just people, and all people have faults and shortcomings, but all of us are born with a basic goodness."

So most of all, I WISH I could give him an A for using his above strengths for channelizing his basic goodness.

Makes me wonder what he would have ended up as.

Maybe not on as an article on this blog ;)

I love Anne Frank. Some of my best pick me ups are when i read about her views on life and everything that goes into it.

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”

“I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.”

“Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.”


“I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.”

“No one has ever become poor by giving.”

“Because paper has more patience than people. ”

“Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness. People are just people, and all people have faults and shortcomings, but all of us are born with a basic goodness.”

And i know this works....

“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As longs as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.”
― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

I sometimes see a lot of funny, amusing, inspiring sayings, quotes here n there. Thought I’d write in my top three for the month:

“The best cure for a short temper is a long walk” – painted on placard in the park where I walk regularly. Truer words were never painted methinks:)

“Common sense is not so common after all” – From a T-shirt worn by a guy. ( LOL!)

“What we call meditation is just an unsuccessful suicide attempt” – from a book. (Am at a loss for words to comment on this!!!)

This is the last of the lot for 2013 and by one of my favorite authors. I like the guns n roses thought in the poem;)

Ruskin Bond –

If mice could roar

And elephants soar

And trees grow up in the sky;

If tigers could dine

On biscuits and wine,

And the fattest of men could fly!

If pebbles could sing

And bells never ring

And teachers were lost in the post;

If a tortoise could run

And losses be won,

And bullies be buttered on toast;

If a song brought a shower,

And a gun grew a flower,

This world would be nicer than most!

"Mike Teavee..." Roald Dahl

So true! I always preferred books over TV and I wish many others did too!

The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set --
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.
(Last week in someone's place we saw
A dozen eyeballs on the floor.)
They sit and stare and stare and sit
Until they're hypnotised by it,
Until they're absolutely drunk
With all that shocking ghastly junk.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink --
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES!
'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say,
'But if we take the set away,
What shall we do to entertain
Our darling children? Please explain!'
We'll answer this by asking you,
'What used the darling ones to do?
'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:
THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!
Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales
Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales
And treasure isles, and distant shores
Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars,
And pirates wearing purple pants,
And sailing ships and elephants,
And cannibals crouching 'round the pot,
Stirring away at something hot.
(It smells so good, what can it be?
Good gracious, it's Penelope.)
The younger ones had Beatrix Potter
With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter,
And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland,
And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and-
Just How The Camel Got His Hump,
And How the Monkey Lost His Rump,
And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul,
There's Mr. Rat and Mr. Mole-
Oh, books, what books they used to know,
Those children living long ago!
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something to read.
And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.

I soooo love Poems by Spike Milligan. I would love to visit this land:)

In The Land Of The Bumbley Boo

In the land of the Bumbley Boo
The People are red white and blue,
They never blow noses,
Or ever wear closes,
What a sensible thing to do!

In the land of the Bumbley Boo
You can buy Lemon pie at the zoo;
They give away foxes
In little Pink Boxes
And Bottles of Dandylion Stew.

In the land of the Bumbley Boo
You never see a Gnu,
But thousands of cats
Wearing trousers and hats
Made of Pumpkins and Pelican Glue!


Chorus
Oh, the Bumbley Boo! the Bumbley Boo!
That's the place for me and you!
So hurry! Let's run!
The train leaves at one!
For the land of the Bumbley Boo!
The wonderful Bumbley Boo-Boo-Boo!
The Wonderful Bumbley BOO!!