“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci (Adopted by Steve Jobs)
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A Charcoal Burner worked as usual, and he noticed the cloth-cleaning Fuller, also working.
The Coal Burner entreated the Fuller to come and live with him, pleading that they would be quite the better for joining and sharing expenses.
The Fuller replied, “But, whatever I should whiten, you would immediately blacken.”
Moral of the Story: Change self, change the other, or change the situation. If people cannot be changed, then wisdom requires situational management.
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Introduction – The Essential Aesop – Epilogue
Related Articles: Same for You, Same for Me – The Business of Aesop™ No. 48 – The Two Pots; The Company We Keep. No. 19. The Farmer and the Stork – The Essential Aesop™ – Back to Basics Abridgment Series; True Friendship. Or, Being Friendly v. Being Friends. – No. 84. The Hare with Many Friends – The Essential Aesop™ – Back to Basics Abridgment Series; Choosing Partners – No. 48. The Two Pots – The Essential Aesop™ – Back to Basics Abridgment Series
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Why We Loved It: Aesop combines a few concepts that were more isolated in prior fables. In The Two Pots, Aesop taught of the dangers for the weaker partner in joining with a stronger partner, in The Farmer and the Stork, he showed the risk of being impugned by bad company, and, in The Hare with Many Friends, he distinguished being friendly with being friends.
Here, the Coal Burner wants to live with the Fuller, which is certainly a friendly gesture. The problem is that the Coal Burner cannot keep things clean by necessity, and the Fuller must keep things clean by necessity, which are contradictory goals. It is simply a bad match of association. If neither the Coal Burner nor the Fuller can change self, then the only solution is to change (or prevent) the situation. By his character choice, Aesop is telling us that neither character can change self, so wisdom requires situational management.
Such as in The Two Pots, the Coal Burner provides the invitation, but that is an easy decision for the Coal Burner: the Coal Burner does not have risk in the association. Indeed, clean clothes is not an incident of the Coal Burner’s professional goals. Therefore, it is all upside for the Coal Burner. However, for the Fuller, the association has a significant downside: the closer the association, the more the Fuller’s professional goals are contradicted. It is of no negative consequence to the Coal Burner, if the Fuller must work harder, or if everything should turn grey.
Aesop teaches us to be careful about invitations that place us at risk. To think ahead. And, here, he presses for us to be careful about our influencers.
The clothing in this fable is the metaphor for our mind.
Contradictory associations and the related influence can be noble, such as pulling someone from the metaphorical ditch. But, Aesop reminds us again and again that wise actions and noble actions are not necessarily the same thing. Stopping a car in the middle of the freeway to save the ducks may be noble, but not necessarily wise.
“When friendship is settled, you must trust; before friendship is formed, you must pass judgment. Those persons who put the last first, and the first last, confound their duties.” ~ Seneca
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.” ~ Reinhold Niebuhr (attr.)
“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” ~ Jim Rohn.
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© 2013 Arnold Zegarelli and Gregg Zegarelli, Esq. Gregg can be contacted through LinkedIn. Arnold Zegarelli can be contacted through Facebook.
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