“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci (Adopted by Steve Jobs)
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A Boy was in the forest wading through the greenery to gather berries, when he was stung by a Nettle. He ran home crying for his Mother.
When he finally found her, he said, “Mother, but I touched it ever so gently!”
“My son,” she replied, “the next time you come near a Nettle, grasp hold of it firmly, and it won’t hurt you in the least.”
Moral of the Story: Whatever you do, do it with firm resolution.
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Introduction – The Essential Aesop – Epilogue
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Why We Loved It: It has been said the Nettle is so desirable for plucking for its health benefits that it must protect itself with powerful stinging hairs.
Aesop uses the Nettle as his metaphor for the fact that competing interests in life tend to provide respective attacks and defenses. So, the Nettle was sort of telling the Boy, “Gather all the berries you want, but stay away from me or there is pain in it for you.“
The initial life lesson for the unmatured Boy was that the Nettle won the contest. The Boy was beaten and sore. Indeed, the Boy got stung, and then he also ran away from the pain of adversity—entirely defeated and afraid of Nettles—crying for his mommy. Pain, and then double pain; bad, and then worse. Even more life-tragic, it was going to happen again and again throughout the Boy’s life, yielding incessant and continued pain, crying and misery, and a life-long dislike (or dare we say, hatred) for Nettles. Then, the Boy would become a Man, replicating that lesson unto and onto his Children.
Oh, unhappy replication of the life-sting that would last forever.
But, alas, thank goodness for the wisdom of Mother. Aesop says the Boy seeks his mommy, perhaps for her presupposed soothing comfort. We might have expected Father to step in to chide Mother for coddling the Boy and then to provide his “fatherly” advice. That is, it might be typical in ancient Greece for the Father to give the Boy swat of “manly” sternness with the standard “suck it up” advice. But, not on this day. Mother saved Forever.
The Boy’s Mother teaches him the lesson. She freely gives her Boy a rule of life, being a tool to use early and often: What we want in life takes work and tends to have some pain in it. Trying to achieve something meaningful with less than total commitment tends not overcome the inertia of the status quo. The success of the champion is oft by seconds and inches that is caused from the champion’s extra effort.
The reality is that pain tends to come either way. The pain of work now, pleasure of the money later. The pleasure of not working now, the pain of destitution later. Pleasure of food now, pain of being overweight later. The pain of dieting now, the pleasure of being in shape later. The extra effort to grab the Nettle now firmly, the pleasure of taking it for use later.
The World does tend to push back. Things tend to exist because they have survived the average. But, beware the exceptional.
Aesop reminds us to exceed the average, which is to be exceptional. He reminds us to do the things we do with strength, clarity, and resolute firmness. Mother gave her Boy more than salve. She gave her Boy the cure.
Indeed, perhaps Mother did coddle her Boy after all, in the kindest and most exceptional way.
“If you enter the house of Fortune through the door of pleasure, you will leave through the door of sorrow, and vice versa. Fortune seldom accompanies someone to the door. She is as courteous to those who are coming as she is rude to those who are going.” ~Baltasar Gracian. The Art of Worldly Wisdom .
“If you withdraw support to withstand that which thrusts toward you, it will plunge even more heavily upon you. But, if you hold your ground and make up your mind to push back, it will be forced back.” ~Seneca the Younger
“Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.” ~Albert Einstein
“Everyone has superstitions. One of mine has always been when I started to go anywhere, or to do anything, never to turn back or to stop until the thing intended was accomplished.” ~Ulysses S. Grant
“Ambition, energy, industry, perseverance, are indispensable requisites for success in business. Fortune always favors the brave, and never helps a man who does not help himself.” ~P.T. Barnum
“If you want the view, you have to climb the mountain.” ~Arnold Zegarelli
“Those who really want to be Yogis must give up, once for all, this nibbling at things. Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life–think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, and this is the way great spiritual giants are produced. Others are mere talking machines.” ~Swami Vivekananda
“Gird up you loins now, like a man.” ~Book of Job, 40:7
“To be the man, you have to beat the man.“ ~Ric Flair
“Tantum modo movere adversis ex nostra via, est ad ventilabis adversis ex modo.” (“The only way to move adversity from our path, is to push it out of the way.” ) -grz
“Everyone pushes over a falling fence.” ~Chinese Proverb
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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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