David received a parrot for his birthday. This
parrot was fully grown with a bad attitude and terrible vocabulary.
Every other word was an expletive. Those that weren’t expletives
were, to
say the least, rude. David tried hard to change the bird’s
attitude.
He was constantly saying polite words and playing soft
music, he did
anything he could think of. Nothing worked. When he
yelled at the bird,
the bird got worse. If he shook the bird, the bird
got madder and ruder.
Finally in a moment of desperation, David put
the parrot in the
freezer. For a few moments he heard the bird
squawking, kicking and screaming
and then suddenly, there was quiet.
David was frightened that he might have actually hurt the bird and
quickly opened the freezer door. The parrot calmly stepped out onto
David’s extended arm and said: “I’m sorry that I might have
offended you
with my language and actions, so I ask for your forgiven
ess. I will try
to correct my behavior.”
David was
astounded at the bird’s change in attitude and was about to
ask what had
changed him when the parrot continued:
“May I ask what the
chicken did?”