wo Houses

ome time ago Baron Von Lodge was the head of a small country near Switzerland known as Lilliland.

People often wondered how the Baron, by himself, could run Lilliland. But that was far from the case. The Baron has a chief advisor named Professor Hamblin from Oxford University.

Lilliland, like Great Britain, had two houses of government, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. But, unlike Great Britain, they could not seem to agree on anything. The one house accused the other house of sleeping on the job and they, in turn, accused the first house of snoring too loud. They spent two weeks discussing the size of the memo pads that they were to use in their offices.

Since being a senior citizen offered some privileges, there was an arousing discussion of who qualifies as a senior citizen? The House of Commons said that the age should be 65, while the House of Lords said that age 55 was fine.

As usual, the matter was sent directly to the Baron for his final decision in the matter. The Baron, in consultation with Professor Hamblin, decided that neither proposal was sufficient. Instead, they said that age alone was not a proper criterion. The calendar should not be the deciding factor; it should be something else.

Certainly, the general health of the person was important as well as the attitude that the person brought to the workplace.

The Baron’s preliminary decision was to leave it up to the individual. If he felt that he could no longer do the job and wanted to retire, then his word was good enough. If his personal health was getting poorer each day, then that was an important part of the decision.

The matter was returned to both houses for further deliberation. Both houses argued concerning the lazy person who was too lazy to go to work, even though his health was fine. The Baron was asked that question several times.

The Baron’s answer was that the lazy person would know deep in his heart that he was doing something wrong, and his good conscience would be a constant reminder of that fact. “We are a small country, but we are a country of serious, hard-working people. Lazy people eventually leave Lilliland and go somewhere else.”

The matter remained unresolved temporarily.