A Tortoise was unhappy and wanted to relocate his home. So he asked an Eagle to carry him to a new location, promising her a reward.
The Eagle agreed and took the Tortoise up in the sky holding on with her talons.
On their way they met a Crow, who tempted the Eagle with statements of how tasty is Tortoise meat.
The Eagle finally succumbing, let the Tortoise fall onto a sharp rock, breaking the shell, and the two birds made a hearty meal of the Tortoise.
A reward, indeed.
Moral of the Story: Our desires make us vulnerable to enemies. Mercenaries act in self-interest, not being loyal to the subject, but rather being loyal to the object—that is, the reward. Rewards moving from the outside-in are naturally selfish.
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Introduction – The Essential Aesop – Epilogue
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Why We Loved It: Aesop’s lessons have withstood time, because they offer teachings at a level of our own understanding, from simplistic for children, to complex for adults. [1]
Like unlimited nourishment, each of us can take all we need. So, let us feast…
Aesop starts by choosing his character carefully, being the unassuming, often-perceived goodly, Turtle.
But, Aesop discloses a problem for the Turtle, such as it is for many of us: The Turtle’s unhappy where he is.
But, it’s not the unhappiness, per se, that is the problem, it’s that the unhappiness is the causation for desire. [2] And, it’s not even that the desire, per se, is the problem, because desire—if harmonized within the constraint of wise action—is motivation for positive change.
So, Aesop takes us full circle to the issue of the fable: We exist within a context. If we are unsatisfied with the context and are thereby unhappy, we have a cause for change.
Now the crucial question:
In what context, and in what circumstances, is it wise to act for change? This answer rests on wisdom, which rests upon a rational assessment of risk. This question is often stated succinctly as, “Is it worth it?”
Back to Aesop’s choice of the Turtle as a character.
Why the Turtle? Among Aesop’s many available characters, why does Aesop not use another character with a similar general character?
Aesop uses his Turtle, because it is the Turtle who has the same home where ever he goes. The Turtle is the quintessential example of a character who takes himself with himself wherever he goes, and wherever he goes, he gets there slowly.
This is key to understanding this fable, being the Turtle-as-the-character’s unique static condition of self. The Turtle is the quintessential, “We take ourselves with us wherever we go.“
In this fact of the Turtle being constrained to his same home everywhere, Aesop minimizes the external potential benefits to the actor in the context. That is, the Turtle has a desire, but with the minimum available benefit of context improvement.
Now let us move on to the Turtle’s methodology to satisfy his unhappy desire.
The Turtle might have walked to a new location, taking his home with him, but that would be too slow for the slow-moving Turtle.
The Turtle wanted a quick fix. [3]
Therefore, Aesop puts the Turtle into the hands of a quick-fix mercenary, who acts not for love, but for reward. Such as it was for Caesar’s Roman soldiers: at first, the soldiers fought for love of Rome [3a], with reward being incidental, and then it evolved into the opposite, which is a significant difference in an assessment of motivational risk. [4, 5, 6, 7]
And Aesop very carefully chooses his other actors for this teaching, being the conspiring Eagle and Crow. The Eagle is often perceived as a bird of majesty. And the Crow is often perceived as base and mean.
But, together as birds, the majestic Eagle and base Crow share a common temptation: Turtle meat.
With these two characters, Aesop shows us that the lofty presumptive integrity of the otherwise majestic Eagle, may still succumb to the intriguing “Lady Macbeth” temptations of base self-interest presented by the Crow.
For the Turtle to satisfy his unhappy desire, the Turtle must trust.
But, trusting a mercenary is always a dangerous game, particularly when the Eagle is a character that might not only to give up the task and fail in integrity for his promise, but also to give up the task and to eat the intended beneficiary. A double risk for the Turtle.
That is, it’s an incentivized, “turtle in the hand is worth two in the bush” for the Eagle. [8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17]
Behold, we discover that this sublime fable is framed with the minimum benefit to the Turtle, who sought the quick fix, with maximum risk in the chosen method, all sourced from his emotional desire.
Therefore, Aesop teaches that desire naturally drives us toward foolishness, tending to cause us to trust and to hope, and desire also naturally drives even those actors we tend to trust for the highest integrity to succumb to temptation within the right context.
Once again, Master Aesop teaches that unhappiness leads to desire, and desire unharmonized to wise implementation leads to self-destruction, for the fool.
Indeed, the Turtle was a quadruple-fool for his context: first, a fool not to be satisfied in his home to which he is bound; second, a fool to desire to effect a change with minimum benefit for himself; third, a fool to seek a quick-fix; and fourth, a fool to trust a mercenary who is not bound by love, but rather who profits either way without investment. [*3a]
“Be careful when you inform yourself about things. We see very few things for ourselves, and live trusting others. Emotion taints everything it touches….
“There is no way to get along with villainy, for it feels no obligation to behave rightly. This is why there is no true friendship among villains, and their fine words cannot be trusted; for they do not spring from honor. Avoid the person who has no honor, for if he esteems not honor, he esteems not virtue. And honor is the throne of integrity…
“…No one is easier to fool than a good man; the person who never lies believes others easily, and the one who never deceives trusts others. Being fooled isn’t always a sign of foolishness; sometimes it shows goodness. Two kinds of people are good at foreseeing danger: those who have learned at their own expense, and the clever people who learn a great deal at the expense of others. You should be as cautious at foreseeing difficulties as you are shrewd at getting out of them. Don’t be so good that you give others the chance to be bad. Be part serpent and part dove; not a monster, but a prodigy.“ ~Baltasar Gracian, The Art of Worldly Wisdom
[1] Epilogue: On the Wisdom of Aesop [#GRZ_24]
[3] They Entered the Building, but Only One Went In; Or, Don’t Call Me a “Human Being” – [#GRZ_134]
[3a] Love or Fear to Motivate: Which is Better? [#GRZ_216]
[5] Being Naive – No. 42. The Wolf and the Goat – The Essential Aesop™ – 98_42
[6] Same for You, Same for Me – The Business of Aesop™ No. 48 – The Two Pots – 54
[7] Choosing Partners – No. 48. The Two Pots – The Essential Aesop™ – 98_48
[9] Leadership and the Audacity of Hope [#GRZ_128]
[11] Entrepreneurial Hope, and Lust for Smart Love [#GRZ_65]
[12] Hiring on Hope – The Business of Aesop™ No. 90 – The Cat-Maiden [#GRZ_98_90]
[16] The Duty of Trust – Stand for America® [#GRZ_50]
[17] The Proseuché (The Prayer of Socrates) [#GRZ_131]
“Lorum lorum dominum non protegit si canis circum volvitur.” (“The leash does not protect the master, if the dog should turn around.”) ~ grz
© 2013 Arnold Zegarelli and Gregg Zegarelli, Esq. Gregg can be contacted through LinkedIn. Arnold Zegarelli can be contacted through Facebook.
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