One Dollar equals Five Pennies :)

You are led through you lifetime by the inner learning creature, the playful spiritual being that is your real self. Don’t turn away from possible futures before you’re certain you don’t have anything to learn from them.-Richard Bach

This week has been a very interesting one for me. It was my first week back to school after the wretched swine flu attack and so I was still recovering a little bit. I found myself taking quite a bit of cough syrup this week. If you know me well enough you would be very frightened by that last sentence. You see, I react very strangely when it comes to cough syrup. I have several times been accused of being high because I act a little strange; ok, I act extremely strange. Well I guess it is probably because I was acting so strangely, that I remembered one of my favorite poets when I was younger. Since his poetry is aimed at a younger audience it has been quite awhile since I have opened Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein but today I did. Shel Silverstein is a genius, if I do say so myself. His poetry is so light and humorous that it makes you just want to giggle. You can tell just from the title of his books that he is a man who likes to have fun and is also very creative. One of my favorite poems from Where the Sidewalk Ends has to be “Smart.” In this humorous poem a boy is given one dollar bill by his father and by the end of the story he had traded it for five pennies. Because five is more than one, the boy thought his father was too proud of him to speak when he showed his father the final outcome of the dollar bill. This poem is an excellent example of the ability that Shel Silverstein has. Silverstein uses an intricate rhyme scheme in this light-hearted poem while also giving a moral that quantity does not beat out quality in money. The poem is taken from this little boy’s perspective and how he thinks he has tricked all these people out of something but in reality he is the one who has been tricked. The progression in the story is eloquent yet peppy at the same time. The boy goes around trading his one dollar bill for two quarters, his two quarters for three dimes, his three dimes for four nickels and finally his four nickels for five pennies. Shel conveniently runs through our currency by quantity in this poem while supporting the theme that quality is better than quantity. Overall the imagery in this poem is also so amazing that you really can imagine this scene as it happens. If you are ever in need for a laugh I urge you to read this poem about a boy who learns a lesson about money.