Poem #35: No Muss, No Fuss, No Cuss

I was a high school English teacher/reading specialist. Critical reading was therefore one of the skills I imparted to my students be they lower level or advanced. I tried to engender within them a healthy skepticism for what they encountered in print, because so many erroneously tend to grant automatic credence to anything that appears in print. I tried to force them to think for themselves and to automatically question anything containing a 100% word -- i.e. all, none, always, never -- because very little in reality can be summarized with such words. Blindly accepting such statements makes one's life easier, because if you accept it as true, you don't have to critically think about anything. This poem emphasizes this philosophy:




No need to think.
No muss, no fuss, no cuss.

Naivete -- espousing all,
cynicism-- doubting all,
evil twins, slaying reason by freeing the mind from thought.
Just smile and nod, or scowl and tsk-tsk.
Your job is done.
No need to think.
No muss, no fuss, no cuss.

Yes, or no? Always, or never?
True, or false? All, or none?
Hundred percent, or zip? Black, or white?
No grayscale. No hues nor shades.
No need to think.
No muss, no fuss, no cuss.

Maybe's and sometimes's forbidden.
But's banished, probably's prohibited.
What-if's relegated to oblivion.
No need to peer deeply within the mirror of your consciousness.
Scrutiny unnecessary.
The easy way out.
No need to think.
No muss, no fuss, no cuss.

Is your mind a weed patch, overgrown, jungle-like,
or a tended garden yielding unbounded fruit?
Farm your mind, deracinate the apathy,
tend the furrows, fertilize with ideas,
water with knowledge, allow the light in.
Cultivate your mind.

Then when alone, you'll be in good company.

Able to think.
And well prepared to muss, and fuss, and cuss.

copyright 2003 by Chuck Morlock