The Pony Parable- About Photojournalism

Once upon a time, there were two twin brothers. One was an absolute pessimist and one was an absolute optimist.

One day, some psychologists performed an experiment with the boys. In the experiment, the young pessimist was placed in a room filled with all the newest toys. The young optimist was placed in a room filled with horse dung.They were each left alone in these rooms for two hours.

Then, the psychologists interviewed the boys.When the psychologists opened the door to the room filled with new toys, they found the young pessimist sitting in the middle of the floor crying. They asked him what was wrong.He spent the next four hours detailing how he could be hurt or killed by each and every item in the room.

When the psychologists opened the door to the room filled with horse dung, they found the young optimist laughing and throwing manure around the room.

The shocked psychologists said to the young optimist, "We placed you in a room filled with horse dung. What could you possibly be so happy about?"

The young optimist turned to them, pointed at the manure and said with glee, "With all this horse poop, there's got to be a pony somewhere.

"This is photojournalism. If you look for the ponies, you'll find them. Good luck with your search.

Excerpt From: Mark M. Hancock, 22 April 2007, The Pony Parable,http://markhancock.blogspot.com/2007/04/pony-parable.html