‘Dr. Chronicles Rainmaker Show’
History often records how sincere people have carefully and humbly planted their seeds of hope into the soil of barren and broken dreams. It’s only natural that folks yearn for time to flow like a healing stream into those newly planted rows and bring forth a harvest that satisfies the soul and validates the deepest of human aspirations. But revitalizing waters aren’t always easily located and in time dreams may give way to despair.
What no one can completely envision is that when we are weak, discouraged and vulnerable, squalid ideas like contaminated spores may drift in on the breeze and produce a harvest of fears and tears. It was during such a time that people were caught off guard; not expecting the arrival of “The Dr. Chronicle Rain Maker Show.”
As the colorful wagon arrived in the big city, some folks played festive music, some danced, and others ran alongside cheering his arrival! He was handsome, spoke with a seductive charm and said he could heal the land with incantations that would produce the healing rains necessary to bring hope and change to the troubled soil. He delivered his eloquent oratory from the elevated platform on his fancy buckboard and with impassioned voice asked: “If you will place your trust in me do you believe that together we can make a difference?” And with enthusiasm the crowd responded, “Yes, we can, Yes, we can!”
Dr. Chronicle not only promised to bring healing rains, but he also offered bold advice aimed at mending what he considered to be the backward ways of city residents living like simple folks in shabby little local towns. He even displayed a wide variety of healing products! He said that the elixirs carried in his big wagon were all designed to eradicate the body of discomforts, and would be made available to everybody, and at no cost to those he deemed as “the needy.”
Yes sir, when The Dr. Chronicle Rain Maker Show came to the big city everyone had to admit that the expectations were at an all-time high!
Crowds patiently waited and watched, but healing rains never did appear; his bold advice tended not to be very practical and the life elixirs weren’t free at all. Through some fancy verbal hocus pocus Dr. Chronicle managed to extract a hefty fee from quite a few hard working citizens.
In a rather short period of time the mood of the city began to change as people noticed something very precious was quickly evaporating.
You see, the sense of community trust withered away as the subtle activities of Dr. Chronicle gave rise to a skepticism that over-shadowed the former optimism he had once inspired. People didn’t remember that a leading townsman once advised, “The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies.”
Also lost in the hullabaloo was the priceless counsel offered by a gentle and perceptive woman who stated, “The very people you trusted most could become like strangers in their longing.” Looking back, I don’t think Dr. Chronicle ever appreciated or embraced the notion that, “When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property.”
I guess the moral of the story is that some things in life really are too good to be true, that even hollow miracles don’t come cheap, that twisted promises get buried in the dust, and that there will always be those who would gladly make merchandise of others.
Surely the Dr. Chronicles of the world will indeed come and go, their stirring elocutions are soon forgotten, and their reputations, like wagon wheels, eventually turn to rust.
One can only wonder how much Dr. Chronicle ever really believed in his own incantations.
Personally, when I look at the collective faith, wisdom, love and labor found within the citizenry, I don’t think we ever really needed any hocus pocus, empty promises or stirring speeches that came with The Dr. Chronicle Rain Maker Show.
I still firmly believe that if folks keep planting their seeds of hope into the soil of barren and broken dreams, sooner or later, time really will flow like a healing stream, and those newly planted rows surely will bring forth a harvest that indeed satisfy the soul and validate the deepest of human aspirations.
Larry Douglas is a resident of Waynesburg.