Self-Improvement in a New Key

The Secret Squirrel Baffler!

I am utterly convinced that if given the course, squirrels could become nuclear scientists!  Without a doubt, they learn faster than any critter I have ever seen.  The market has dozens and dozens of contraptions to protect bird feeders--and yet given time, even the best squirrel busters bust!  They can break the code by trying over and over again and getting the skills to get at the seed.  What I have learned to fool them--and what does it tell me about people?

The way to fool squirrels--and I cannot patten this--is to frequently set up a different challenge. This starts their learning process over. For example:  I constantly change the location of the feeder by just a small distance. Or, I add a different cover, like a pie plate or buy the squirrel baffler plexi-glass cover to hang on the top of the feeder.    That sounds like a pain in the you know what--but it works--and it takes so little effort. 

What does this say about people?  First of all that we have our obsessions to prevail in the animal kingdom! Frustration drives us to any limit to out-wit squirrels.  Second, that we too learn by trial and error. Those who do not understand the past are bound to commit it over and over again. How often do we become trapped by ourselves in the way we do things? Insanity has been defined as doing the same thing and expecting a different result. 

HOWEVER...if we truly wish to learn and develop ourselves, then the best way to do it is to change our routine--try it a different way and see what way we can find for a new path.  We fool squirrels by changing the location where they feed.We fool ourselves by not changing the way we do things and then we wonder why we do not get more out of life!


From the Wisdom of Winnie the Pooh...

Here is Edward Bear, coming down the stairs now, 
bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, 
behind Christopher Robin. 
It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, 
but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, 
if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it