In another setting Pinocchio discovers that when he tells a lie, his nose grows. Subsequently, he learns that the only way to return his nose to its proper shape is to tell the truth and correct the lies.
At one point, Pinocchio earns five gold coins in an attempt to provide for the poor woodcarver. En route to Geppetto's house, a sinister pair fools the puppet into planting his coins in "the Field of Miracles" outside the City of Catchfools, where they are to multiply into a thousand coins. The two evil characters steal the money, of course.
In 1940, Walt Disney Studios released the animated cartoon film, "Pinocchio." The theme song won the Academy Award for original song that year. The first seven notes of "When You Wish Upon a Star" became Disney's signature; foghorns on the Disney Cruise Line blast them out even today.
"When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are, anything your heart desires will come to you," Jiminy Cricket sang. "If your heart is in your dream, no request is too extreme...when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true."
I hate it, now that you're feeling all warm and fuzzy this Sunday morning after Labor Day, but I must burst your bubble.
Pinocchio was, and is, fictitious. Puppets carved out of pine do not become real children. Money buried in the dirt does not multiply into a fortune. And wishing on a star does not make dreams come true, no matter how fervently your heart desires.
The world in which we live would surely be a much better place if we could wish away all ills and evils. How I wish there were no horrific maladies such as cancer, malaria, Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis. How I wish America had been settled without horrors perpetrated upon American Indians. How I wish slavery had never been devised, much less actually practiced. How I wish Adolph Hitler had never been born, that throughout recorded history wars in the name of God had never been fought, that children were never abused, that divorce was nonexistent.
How I wish to have taken a train trip to Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and New York City with my classmates in the 1960s when we just didn't have the money. How I wish Daddy hadn't died when I was 17. How I wish I could've bought a Palomino for my daughter 15 years ago - and something really nice for my wife on our 35th anniversary last December.
But wish in one hand, spit in the other, and see which fills up first. That's the difference between fiction and reality, friend.
Last Wednesday evening I listened as President Barack Obama made his pitch to a joint session of Congress for health care overseen by the federal government and including a "public option" for citizens who don't have health insurance.
The 44th President wishes all Americans could have health care. An astonishing 90 percent of them do. And despite soaring costs absorbed by the 90 who do for the 10 who don't, America still has the best health care system on the planet.
I, too, wish everyone had great health care insurance. But you can't get something for nothing. Not in a free enterprise, capitalistic economic system. And if you think breaking the system which works well for 90 in order to provide for 10 is the way to go, you're as wooden-headed as Pinocchio.
Fix what's wrong? Yes, surely. But don't throw out the baby with the bath water.
Nat Harwell is a long-time resident of Newton County. His columns appear regularly on Sundays.
