With Apologies to Dr. Seuss

Once upon a time, in the land of Kazoo,
lived two grizzled old men, one red and one blue.
Across the street from each other, in houses alike,
and out on the street they both road their bikes.
But though they were bikers, and lived very close,
they avoided each other, and thought the other quite gross.

.The red man had grown up as red as a beet,
with red from his hair right down to his feet.
And the red man had learned from his grizzled old father,
that the blue kind of people were frankly a bother.

“The red kind of people,” his father would say,
“are the smartest of all the folks living today.”
“Watch out for those blue ones, the liberal kind.
They are shifty, and worthless, and never quite mind.
Our way is better, you know that it’s true,
and we should be the rulers of dear old Kazoo.”

The blue man was blue way down to the core,
with a long blue beard that dragged on the floor.
And though he could see the red man who lived over there,
he remembered his mama saying that reds were all square.

“Those red kind of people,” his mama once said,
“have something that’s missing inside of their heads .”
“Those red ones, they always avoid any change,
they are rigid and angry; I think they have mange.
Our way is better, you know that it’s true,
and WE should be the rulers of dear old Kazoo.”

So the reds gathered, and formed them a state,
an army to protect them when they stayed up late.
And the blues likewise, grouped up together,
because they all knew that their way was better.|
And they argued and fumed, they fussed and they fought.
They ranted and ranted. They were all quite distraught.
Until one day, a new handsome teacher he came,
and said “You know this is the silliest game.”

“I wonder,” he said, “if there’s not something better,
a way of living that will bring us together.”
He looked at the people, the blues and the reds,
and he told them to listen with all of their heads.
“Red and blue is just fine,” he said with great might,
“but listen to me, neither one of you is right.”

“You reds think that only the red way is right.
You blues think the other’s heads are not screwed on quite tight.
But the one who made us, the creator of night,
the creator of morning, the creator of light,
the creator of all colors, both red and both blue,
the creator of all, every shape and every hue.”

This creator, the one who made us from dust,
believes that all colors equally must
love one another, with all of our might,
for to love is the thing that is always quite right.
You see in my kingdom, there isn’t one color,
they are all are mixed up one with another.
And this new color, not quite blue or quite red,
is a new way of being, let’s call it Hesed.
Hesed is quite lovely, Hesed is quite chic,
Hesed is a color that is very sleek.

And when Hesed is the center of of all of our lives,
then both red and blue can put down all your knives.
For the creator of all, the night and the day,
created all to be perfect, in their own unique way.

The red man and blue man, they put down their swords.
They hugged one another. They apologized for their words.
For they knew for the first time in all of their years,
they could throw in the garbage all of their fears.
And the people of Kazoo, both the red and the blue,
sleep soundly each evening, knowing now what was is true.
The red and the blue were neither the way,
but only the one who created the day.