An exercise in futility with a road full of toads

Inspiration

By Charles Towne

Have you ever tried to herd toads?

The toads had metamorphosed from cute little toad tadpoles to cute little toads, exact replicas of their parents except for the fact they were about half an inch long. The road was swarming with toads, zillions of adorable little suicidal toads. They had left the shallow water of the drainage ditch and were crossing the blacktop road to reach Valhalla, the promised land, Shangri la, or wherever it is that toads seek to go as they crawl out of the great muddy, ditch of life.

The tiny toads were hopping aimlessly about in the road amidst the toad grease spots of those that had tried to make the journey before and had fatally encountered the great tires of fate. The way I saw it at the time was I had to rescue the little toads. So there I was, bent over and waving my arms, trying to shoo the wee beasties off the road.

Have you ever tried to herd toads? Don’t, it is an exercise in futility.

They defied my best efforts and shouted little toad obscenities at me. (Herding toads is like directing some people, fruitless and absolutely a waste of time.) A car was coming. I stopped herding toads and tried to assume a somewhat normal, if not dignified appearance so that I would not be mistaken for a stooped over, arm waving lunatic, dancing and cavorting in the middle of the road.

Too late.

The driver saw me before I saw him. He thinks I am a stooped over, arm waving lunatic, dancing and cavorting in the middle of the road. As he passed he stared suspiciously at me as he hurriedly rolled up his window and sped away. Split, splat, splut! More cute little toads are transformed into even more cute little toad grease spots. Cute little idiot toads be darned. Hmmm, I wonder. Do you suppose our Heavenly Father ever gets tired of trying to herd us out of the great highway of life? And we, just like the toads, disregard His efforts, and hop right back out into the road again. Yeah, I wonder.

Live Fully,

Love Openly

And make a difference, today

Charles Towne is a longtime Apopka resident, member of Insp!re Church and a published author.