“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci (Adopted by Steve Jobs)
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There was once a Frog who came forth from his home in the marshes. He proclaimed that he was a learned physician, was skilled in medicines, and was able to cure all diseases.
All the Beasts were mesmerized by the Frog’s wonderful oratory, until a clever Fox called out, “You are no doctor! How can you proclaim to heal others when you cannot even cure your own blotched and wrinkled skin!”
Moral of the Story: Physician, heal thyself.
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Introduction – The Essential Aesop – Epilogue
Related Articles: Teaching By Example – No. 103. The Mother Crab – The Essential Aesop™ – Back to Basics Abridgment Series
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Why We Loved It: Aesop reminds us to do the thing that we are bold enough to profess. To make his point, he chooses one of his characters who is most obviously in need of the correction, being the Frog. And, somewhat against type, or at least now playing for the other team, he uses his usual culprit of ruses, the clever Fox, to expose the game.
We are told that the Frog is a wonderful orator, using fine words and perhaps skilled in the art of rhetoric, leaving his audience mesmerized. But, now, Reynard the Fox is on the other side of the table, trying to match the Frog’s words to the facts, and it did not reconcile. The jig was up.
Such as it often is with Aesop’s fables, there are two perspectives in the lesson, and two lessons. The speaker and the listener.
For the listener, Aesop teaches us to be careful to judge on the facts we see, rather than the words we hear. Selling hope is often profitable, because it attaches to our needs. So we let words beguile us. We know better, but, such as it is, wisdom oft succumbs to desire in the form of hope.
For the speaker, Aesop teaches us to practice what we preach. That is, the first and best use of any lesson is to prove it by applying it to ourselves.
[100] The Importance of Aesop to Socrates [#GRZ_100]
296 He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal thyself,’ and say, ‘What we heard was done in Capernaum, do here in your native place.’” 297 And he said, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his native place.” ~Jesus [183] {[174], [175], [179], [184]}
“The older I get, the less I listen to what men say, and the more I watch what they do.” ~ Henry Ford
“All the proof of a pudding is in the eating.” ~ William Camden, Remaines of a Greater Worke Concerning Britaine (1605)
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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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