a family story plus!
The holiday season often brings family back together…and here’s a familiar story about family, told in a way that only an ex-English teacher would tell it!
Can you wrap your head/tongue around this tongue twister version? See if you can read/say it without stumbling!
Feeling footloose and frisky, a featherbrained fellow forced his fond father to fork over his farthings. He flew far to foreign fields and frittered his fortune, feasting fabulously with faithless friends.
Finally facing famine and fleeced by his fellows-in-folly, he found himself a feed flinger in a filthy farmyard. Fairly famished, he fain would have filled his frame with foraged food from the fodder fragments.
“Fooey, my father’s flunkies fare far fancier,” the frazzled fugitive fumed feverishly, frankly facing facts.
Frustrated by failure and filled with foreboding, he fled forthwith to his family. Falling at his father’s feet, he floundered forlornly, “Father, I have flunked and fruitlessly forfeited family favor.”
But the faithful father, forestalling further flinching, frantically flagged the flunkies to fetch forth the finest fatling and fix a feast.
The fugitive’s fraternal faultfinder frowned on the fickle forgiveness of former folderol. His fury flashed, but fussing was futitle.
The farsighted father figured, “Such filial fidelity is fine, but what forbids fervent festivity for the fugitive is not found. Unfurl the flags with flaring, let fun and frolic freely flow. Former failure is forgotten, folly forsaken. Forgiveness forms the foundation for future fortune.”
(found in a 1999 newsletter!)
P.S. Maybe you could come up with one…”the hoppity hare and the tired tortoise”? (Now aren’t you glad you didn’t have me for your English teacher?!)
P.P.S. Last week I committed to a tiny, tiny step each week in December towards my goal of decluttering. I just removed 2 unread books from my bookshelf (each over 430 pages) that will now go the AAUW book sale box! Yes!
1 Comment
Great story revisited. Perhaps someone’s children’s church might benifit from this present-day presentation.