A story about the greater fool ..

Once there was a man who was going to be married to a woman. He visited her home for the first time, and found his fiancee's mother in the celler, crying. He asked her why she was crying? And she pointed to an axe stuck in the eave above the door and said .. "One day, it will fall down and strike someone on the head, and kill them. And it makes me sad."

He looked at her. Just. Looked at her. Then said. "Ok. You're a fool. I'm not going to marry your daughter, unless I can travel round the world and find a bigger fool than you. But not likely." Later.

He walked across an open field, and under the moon he found a group of men with sticks and they were sticking their sticks into the water for some reason. What are you doing? He asked them. One men replied, "We see the moon in the water, and we're trying to fish it out. But it keeps breaking each time we try..".. And he said. Thats foolish. But not more than his mother in law to be. So he walked on.

He came to a group of men near a foggy bottom, running around in circles with their hands in their pockets, each first to the other. And he asked them, "What are you doing ?" and they replied ... "We look pretty sharp in these clothes. Unless we get sprayed with a hose." .. "And we're keeping our country from those.. " and they pointed to the fog. Well, he asked.. Those what? And they replied... "See, we're keeping them away". And he rolled his eyes and walked on.

He finally made it down to a crossroads, where road, river and rail were found - just out of the mountains - down into hill and rise until he came to an even place where there were some people gathered in a church. He walked in and sat down, and the pastor began to speak. He told a story about a person who won the lottery, and bought all the girls on his block color TV's and a bottle of cheap perfume. And he donated half his money to the city so they had to name a street or a school after him. And then he turned the podium over to Mr. Red White and Blue, who proceeded to explain how it made sense to pray your way through politics. And he said, let us be political. He said. Bow your head and trust invisible beings with invisible plans - yes brothers and sisters, this is the age of the internet - lets all be mystics. And so he shrugged his shoulders and walked off.

Finally he came to a place where the river met the sea. And there on the Potomac he found three people sitting on a bench. Two of them seemed to be trying to have a conversation. And the third, sitting in the middle - seemed particularly keen on interrupting them. The first would say to the third man, "I would like for things to be this way" and the second man would then turn to the third and say "He would not like things to be this way, he wants things to be my way." .. and the third man would nod his head, and agree with the second, all the while talking to the first. And the first, it seemed, kept handing money to the third, but the third would only take money from the second, and then throw away the money of the first. Money was flying everywhere. He counted - nearly 1.5 million dollars flying around that day.

And he thought. Here I am, in a world where men and women build their homes and dreams and lives from cellphone to cellphone, where children can read the complete works of every author that ever lived - a world where twittered thought flies across the boundaries of even nationstates. And two men refuse to talk directly to each other, instead, the middle man constantly interfering.

And then, he remembered how the world markets crashed just the year before - because there was this kind of insanity. And how much money was lost then. And now, so much money flying around, thrown all over the ground - with the first man still unable to talk to his friend. And he said. This is incredibly stupid.

And so he went back home to his fiancee, pulled the axe out of the eave and gave his new mother in law a hug, and said.. "I have found something more silly than what I saw here. He called himself a lobbyist. I will marry your daughter". And he did, and they lived happily ever after.