“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci (Adopted by Steve Jobs)
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A mother Crab watched her son as he moved on the sand, and he was doing so by moving sideways.
“Why, my son, do you walk that way? Walk straightly!” she commanded.
“Well, mother,” said Son Crab, “if I am not doing it correctly, please do it correctly yourself and show me how to do it.”
Moral of the Story: Example is the best teacher. We often criticize others in matters that we cannot do ourselves.
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Introduction – The Essential Aesop – Epilogue
Related Articles: Big Ideas – Business of Aesop™ No. 8 – Belling the Cat
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Why We Loved It: No one is perfect, but that is not the point of this fable.
At first view, this fable appears to be directed to the contention between wisdom, on the one hand, and its partners—courage and discipline—on the other hand. That is, to the extent that we know something—particularly when we might be bold enough to profess it—it is expected that we would do the thing we know. When we continue not to do the thing that we know (or profess), it is often because we fail in courage (to act when we do not desire to act) or discipline (not to act when we desire to act).
Therefore, it seems that Aesop is subtlety chiding a natural hypocrisy in human nature, serving it with his fabled Mother Crab, being much more palatable than dished out by Socrates and Jesus. Socrates chided hypocrites who professed to be wise, but were not wise, and Jesus chided hypocrites who professed to be righteous, but were not righteous. Correction of our hypocrisies tends to be tough for all of us to swallow, and the indirect lesson by Aesop’s fable goes down much easier than the direct approach by Socrates and Jesus.
However, we should recognize that Aesop could have used many of his cast of characters to demonstrate the point of hypocrisy. He chose Mother Crab. The distinction of attribute for Mother Crab is that she does not have the capability to do the thing she teaches, and, in this fact, the fable becomes more complex. If a glutton should teach dieting, there is capacity to do the thing taught; that is, in such case, to make wise eating choices matched to discipline. But, here, Mother Crab has no capacity to walk the straight line she teaches to her son. The lesson is therefore frustrated by incapacity. Neither discipline nor courage will help Mother Crab or Son Crab to walk straightly. So, the lesson now points us back around to wisdom.
Aesop’s Son Crab retorts, “If it can be done, then show me.” That is, to do, Mother Crab, what you teach, with frustrated Son Crab probably knowing already that it cannot be done. Mother Crab either knows the act is impossible or she does not, and, either way, her lesson is foolish.
So, by his subtlety complex fable, Aesop chides us with a reminder to have the discipline and courage to practice what we preach, or at least to try to have the discipline and courage to practice what we preach, or at least to be wise enough to acknowledge our own flaws and the difficulty of having the discipline and courage to do the thing we teach, or at least wisely to acknowledge what is impossible to do and to focus our limited time otherwise.
“Cura te ipsum.” (“Physician heal thyself“). Hippocrates (attrib.)
“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, Serenity Prayer (attributed)
“Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You make offerings of mint, rue, dill, cumin, and of every garden herb, and have neglected the more important things of the law: judgment and mercy, fidelity and love for God. But you should have done the offerings without neglecting the others. Blind guides, you strain out the gnat and swallow the camel! ~Jesus, ONE 2226
And so I go about the world, obedient to the god, and search and make inquiry into the wisdom of any one, whether citizen or stranger, who appears to be wise….And then those who are examined, instead of being angry with themselves, are angry with me!…The easiest and the noblest way is not to be disabling others, but to be improving yourselves. ~ Socrates
“A good example is the best sermon.” Benjamin Franklin
“I learned more from watching my father do sit-ups in the morning as a child, than I learned in all of college.” ~ grz
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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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Do As I Say, Not As I Do – The Business of Aesop™ No. 103 – The Mother Crab [#GRZ_55]
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