“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Leonardo da Vinci. Adopted by Steve Jobs.
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A Fox invited a Stork for dinner.
The Fox served soup to the Stork in shallow dish. Of course, the Fox lapped up the soup easily, but all the Stork could do was to wet the tip of his bill.
Not long after, the Stork reciprocated by inviting the Fox for a meal. The Stork served fish in a tall jar with a narrow neck. The Stork could easily get to the food with his long neck, but all the Fox could do was to lick the outside of the jar.
Moral of the Story: What goes around, comes around.
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Introduction – The Essential Aesop – Epilogue
Related Article: Going It Alone – Business of Aesop™ No. 21. – Two Travelers and the Purse; Mutual Loyalty. No. 21. The Two Travelers and the Purse – The Essential Aesop™ – Back to Basics Abridgment Series; Hypocrisy. Practice What We Preach. No. 34. The Wolf and the Lion – The Essential Aesop™ – Back to Basics Abridgment Series
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Why We Loved It: The Fox in this fable might have been having sport with the Stork intentionally, or perhaps the Fox was thoughtlessly vapidly inconsiderate.
But, we might take special notice of Aesop’s choice of characters: Aesop is using his often troublesome Fox and his often innocent Stork. Perhaps he does so to make the point that even the most forgiving of characters can devolve into discourteousness or revenge.
Aesop creates simple visualization of each character’s respective limitation: the Fox has a thick neck and laps with his tongue, the Stork has a thin neck and draws with his beak.
Aesop exposes our human nature: sport at the expense of others, selfishness, inconsideration, failure of empathy, revenge. We all do it or have the tendency to do it, and we all need to be reminded to control it. It is not an insult to suggest that human nature is weak and selfish, but it might be to say that we are childishly unreconciled or unable to control ourselves. This lesson is profound in its simplicity, encapsulating all that is The Golden Rule and Karma, if not the essence of love itself.
Gesture and courtesy are forms of love, or at least unselfish discipline. Aesop says the Fox invited the Stork as the Fox’s guest, implying a specific duty of the Fox to be courteous as the host to the Stork. Therefore, the Fox’s disregard is an insult to the Stork’s injury.
The Fox received his comeuppance at the Stork’s dinner, but it is important to note that even the Stork, who is usually denoted a meek or innocent character, was naturally inclined to turn the tables.
Sure, perhaps the Stork should have forgiven the insult and injury, but, “moral of the story” notwithstanding, Aesop is not teaching us morals, he is teaching us wisdom as a function of natural inclinations.
What should be and what is are not necessarily the same thing.
“Whatever thou likest not for thine own self, for any person else, too, like it not.” Buddha, Dhammapada
“None of you has faith until he loves for his brother or his neighbor what he loves for himself.” Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Number 72
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Jesus ONE®: 535; “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus ONE®: 1041
“Tsze-kung said, ‘What I do not wish men to do to me, I also wish not to do to men.’ The Master said, ‘Ts’ze, you have not attained to that.” The Analects of Confucius
“Do to others as I would they should do to me.” Socrates, Republic, Bk. XI, 913
© 2013 Arnold Zegarelli and Gregg Zegarelli, Esq. Gregg can be contacted through LinkedIn. Arnold Zegarelli can be contacted through Facebook.
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