Page 26 - FS-Chocolate Festival

Sometimes we demand that everyone must be just like us. They must wear the “right” clothes or like the things we like. Red Tail and Fuzzy Tail are like that in the story. They invented reasons why Squiggy would not participate in the festival and told these “made up” reasons to the others without ever considering that it was
Stinky Thinking.
When the other squirrels didn’t object to this Stinky Thinking, Red Tail and Fuzzy Tail began to believe their own stories. The fact that others were listening to them and agreeing with them made Red Tail and Fuzzy
Tail feel important and powerful. They convinced themselves and the others that it was alright to be ugly to Squiggy. In fact, they began to believe that they should be ugly to Squiggy to protect themselves.
The other squirrels caused themselves to become very angry and fearful by telling themselves that Squiggy was trying to cause a magical curse and ruin the acorn crop or that he had become a friend of the hawks. These are Not OK emotions. These emotions helped them “see” that the trees were not bearing fruit and “see” the crows’ shadows as the attack of hawks. Neither of these things was true. But like the squirrels in the story, you can make yourself so upset or fearful that you will believe things that don’t exist and are not real.
Because of these unreasonable fears, all of the squirrels drive Squiggy out of the colony. Squiggy is the victim the Stinky Thinking of others. Although Red Tail and Fuzzy Tail are obviously at fault, so are all those who listened and did not challenge them to prove what
they said.
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