Zegarelli’s article reframes a deceptively simple fable into a meditation on wisdom as temporal discipline, and a critique of short-sighted cleverness. His method uses layered contrast, inversion of expected character traits, and cross-civilizational citations to explore the ethics of foresight. It isn’t just a lesson in readiness. It’s a challenge to modern hubris—the assumption that cleverness or present comfort negates the need for discipline and preparation. The Boar is not merely cautious—he is sovereign over his domain because he governs time with foresight. [AI Assessment]
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Leonardo da Vinci. Adopted by Steve Jobs.
A Wild Boar was sharpening his tusks, when a Fox approached him.
The Fox mocked the Boar by looking around, as if in fear of some hidden enemy. But the Boar remained steadfast, and just kept on sharpening his tusks.
“What a waste of time. There’s no danger here,” said the Fox.
“True, that there is no danger here now” replied the Boar, “but if danger should come, I will not have time then to sharpen my weapons.”
Moral of the Story: There is safety in preparedness. Present dangers lend no time to prepare. Plan, and think ahead.
Introduction – The Essential Aesop – Epilogue
Why We Loved It: This fable reminds us to plan ahead and to be vigilant for what may come. Each day is a reward and an investment. Thus the adage:
“Quisque dies partim investitio in crastinum, partim praemium pro hesterno est.” (“Each day is part investment for tomorrow, part reward for yesterday.”) [1, 2, 3] Or not, for some. [4]
This fable is a slightly different take on Aesop’s The Ant and the Grasshopper. [*3] In The Ant and the Grasshopper, the characters were generally cast in type with the Grasshopper fiddling and playing while the Ant worked. In that fable, the winter was assured to come.
Aesop is perhaps more subtle here with his message and character choices. Here, Aesop does a reversal with his characters, demonstrating that each is a fool or a sage against his own common nature.
First, Aesop’s Fox. The Fox is Aesop’s “clever” character. Cleverness requires strategy, which is thinking ahead. But, here, the clever Fox is only thinking about today and not about future “conditions.” It also implies the arrogance of self-assured condemnation comes from the one most reputed for the clever strategic skill.
As to the Wild Boar, it might be common to think of such a base and dirty (to us) animal as thoughtless and “wildly emotive out of control,” but the Wild Boar is “remarkably intelligent” and generally even smarter than our beloved dogs. Moreover, depending upon the exact origin of the fable, perhaps the Wild Boar is a Feral Pig that has reverted after losing the safety of domestication.
Either way, Aesop’s “Wild Boar” is here staid and anything but wild.
Aesop tells us that the clever Fox is worse than an interested viewer, but an arrogant ridiculer, by “mocking” the Wild Boar. This term “mock” should bring to mind our Jesus [5], who used the same term when talking about planning; to wit:
Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and determine the cost to see if there are sufficient resources for its completion? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work, the onlookers should mock him and say, “This man began to build but was unable to finish.“
Or what king making war would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand men he can successfully oppose another king coming against him with twenty thousand men? And, if not, while the other is still at a great distance, he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.
[6, 7] Here, the Wild Boar presents the otherwise strategically clever Fox a “but if,” apparently having read his Essential Aesop, and using again a reversal of the adage:
“‘Si’ est maximum parvum verbum in hoc mundo.” (“‘If’ is the biggest little word in the world.”)
The Wild Boar is more than intelligent, but additionally wise to consider the conditions and risks of time. [8, 9]
Forewarned is forearmed.
The Wild Boar—knowing about warlike aggression as both predator and prey—prepares for the fight that might come. He won’t be able to do it during the fight, and it doesn’t matter after the fight. The investment is wise and the Fox would do well to listen. Thus the adage:
“Bonae decisiones ad bonas decisiones ducunt. Malae decisiones ad malas decisiones ducunt.” (“Good decisions lead to good decisions. Bad decisions lead to bad decisions.”) [10a, 10b, 10c]
Strategy is thinking ahead. Planning for the future, not reacting in the moment. Hope has its place, but hope is bad strategy. [10d]
“Think ahead: today for tomorrow—even many days ahead. To those forewarned, there are no strokes of bad luck; no tight spots for those who are prepared. Don’t save your reason for difficult situations; use it to anticipate them. Some act, and think later: this is to look for excuses rather than consequences. Others think neither before nor after. Your whole life should be a matter of thinking out your destination. Rethinking and foresight are a good way to live in advance.”
“Application and capacity. Eminence requires both. When both are present, eminence outdoes itself. The mediocre people who apply themselves go further than the superior people who don’t. Work makes worth. You purchase reputation with it. Some people are unable to apply themselves to even the simplest tasks. Application depends almost always on temperament. It is all right to be mediocre at an unimportant job: you can excuse yourself by saying you were cut out for nobler things. But to be mediocre at the lowest of jobs, rather than excellent at the highest, has no excuse at all. Both art and nature are needed, and application makes them complete.”
“The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” ~ John F. Kennedy
“Forewarned is forearmed.” ~ Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Adventures of Don Quixote de la Mancha
“I run on the road, long before I dance under the lights.” ~ Muhammad Ali
“Polished brass will pass upon more people than rough gold.” ~ Earl of Chesterfield
“After about 2.5 hours of hard practice, I’m walking off the floor, like, drenched [in] sweat, tired. And, here comes Michael pushing me back on the floor, wanting to play a little one-on-one, wanting to see where his game was.” ~ James Worthy of Michael Jordan.
“As a man by practice acquires proficiency in his craft, so the earnest man acquires proficiency in goodness and wisdom. Men shrink from self-discipline because in its early stages it is painful and repellent, and the yielding to desire is, at first, sweet and inviting; but the end of desire is darkness and unrest, whereas the fruits of discipline are immortality and peace.” ~ James Allen, As a Man Thinketh
“By nature men are similar; by practice men are wide apart.” ~ Confucius
“The heights by great men reached and kept; Were not attained by sudden flight; But they, while their companions slept; Were toiling upwards in the night.” ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Ladder of St. Augustine
“Things done well, And with a care, exempt themselves from fear.” ~ William Shakespeare, Henry VIII, Act 1, Sc. 2
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Benjamin Franklin.
“The key is not the will to win… everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.” Bobby Knight.
“I’ve never run into a guy who could win at the top level who didn’t have the right attitude, didn’t give it everything he had, wasn’t prepared, and didn’t have the whole program worked out.” Ted Turner
[1] Are You Ready? [GRZ111] [LinkedIn #GRZ_111]
[2] Be Prepared – Business of Aesop™ No. 29. – The Wild Boar and the Fox. [GRZ26] [LinkedIn #GRZ_26]
[3] Planning Ahead, Vision and Industry – No. 3. The Ant and the Grasshopper – The Essential Aesop™ – Back to Basics Abridgment Series [GRZ98_3] [LinkedIn #GRZ_98_3]
[4] The Two Doors of Life: Pleasure and Pain; The One-Two Choice, Say Sages Aesop, Gracian, Jesus and Socrates [GRZ136] [LinkedIn #GRZ_136]
[5] AI Answers: Did Jesus Study Aesop? [GRZ253] [LinkedIn #GRZ_253]
[6] The ONE LinkedIn Reference Set [GRZ183] [LinkedIn #GRZ_183] ONE: 949 [L14:28] (“Shrewd Planning“)
[7] A Fool and His Country are Soon Parted; Or, The Late American Lifeboat Debate [GRZ171] [LinkedIn #GRZ_171]
[8] The Three Noble Cardinal Rules of Wisdom [GRZ189] [LinkedIn #GRZ_189]
[9] Epilogue: On the Wisdom of Aesop [GRZ24] [LinkedIn #GRZ_24]
[10a] The Lincoln Leadership Dilemma; Or, The Primary Objective [GRZ176] [LinkedIn #GRZ_176]
[10b] The Priest-Patton Scale; Or, Objective-Based Leadership [GRZ162] [LinkedIn #GRZ_162]
[10c] Are You Running With Your Shoes Untied? – Or, the Despise of Failure by Self-Inflicted Wounds [GRZ208] [LinkedIn #GRZ_208]
[10d] First Degree Hope. Guilty?; Or, Why Hope Has Gone Bad—Civilization’s No. 1 Thought-Criminal [GRZ272] [LinkedIn #GRZ_272]
“Bonae decisiones ad bonas decisiones ducunt. Malae decisiones ad malas decisiones ducunt.” (“Good decisions lead to good decisions. Bad decisions lead to bad decisions.”); “Sicut semina parva, facta nostra sopitant, postea nascuntur, sicut flores aut zizania.” (“Like little seeds, our deeds lie dormant, springing up later, as flowers or weeds.”); “Quisque dies partim investitio in crastinum, partim praemium pro hesterno est.” (“Each day is part investment for tomorrow, part reward for yesterday.”); “Spes malum consilium est.” (“Hope is bad strategy.”); “‘Si’ est maximum parvum verbum in hoc mundo.” (“‘If’ is the biggest little word in the world.”); “Vince primum, deinde quiesce.” (“Win first, then relax.”);“Civitas sana philosophiae servit, quia potest. Civitas aegra saluti servit, quia debet.” (“A healthy state aligns to philosophy, because it can. An unhealthy state aligns to survival, because it must.”); “Potentiale est solum hypotheticum.” (“Potential is only a hypothetical.”); “Malum consilium fortuna est.” (“Luck is bad strategy.”); “Virtus virtute salvatur, fortuna fortuna salvatur.” (“Virtue is saved by virtue, and luck is saved by luck.”) ~ grz
ChatGPT Assessment
Gregg Zegarelli’s “Prepare, Prepare, Prepare – No. 29 – The Wild Boar and the Fox” reframes a deceptively simple fable into a meditation on wisdom as temporal discipline, and a critique of short-sighted cleverness. His method uses layered contrast, inversion of expected character traits, and cross-civilizational citations to explore the ethics of foresight. Here’s a structured breakdown:
🎓 PEDAGOGY
1. Aesop as Strategic Mirror
Zegarelli’s use of Aesop here is diagnostic:
- The Fox, normally the trickster-hero in fables, is exposed as foolish by being clever only in the moment.
- The Boar, often viewed as brutish or instinctual, is elevated for reasoned foresight—a reminder that wisdom is not the same as intelligence.
This inversion is a core didactic move: breaking reader bias by shifting moral admiration from the quick to the thoughtful.
2. Temporal Framing
Zegarelli’s central thesis emerges in layered Latin maxims:
- “Each day is part investment for tomorrow, part reward for yesterday.”
- “If is the biggest little word in the world.”
- “Good decisions lead to good decisions.”
These distill the principle of temporal integrity: ethics as the ability to prepare before risk, not react after it.
🧭 ETHOS AND THEMATIC FRAME
1. Preparedness as Ethical Self-Governance
Preparedness is framed not just as strategic prudence, but as virtue. To prepare is to:
- Respect time,
- Anticipate consequence, and
- Resist self-indulgent procrastination.
This is linked to Gracian’s worldview, JFK’s realism, and Cervantes’ warrior prudence—an alignment of thinkers who value action-before-the-crisis as a sign of wisdom.
2. Mockery as a Sign of Foolishness
The Fox’s mockery is not cleverness—it is hubris masquerading as confidence. Zegarelli connects this to:
- Jesus’s parable of the unprepared builder mocked for failing to finish,
- The political leader who fails to assess odds before marching into conflict (cf. GRZ171),
- And to Aesop’s deeper warning: lack of foresight is not neutral—it endangers others.
🔑 KEY TEACHINGS
| Concept | Teaching |
|---|---|
| Foresight | Intelligence directed through time is called wisdom. |
| Mockery | Dismissiveness of preparation reveals inner arrogance or blindness. |
| Cleverness ≠ Wisdom | The Fox knows, but does not plan. The Boar plans, and therefore survives. |
| Discipline over impulse | The Boar maintains calm purpose, even under ridicule. |
| Risk analysis | “If” governs outcomes. Thoughtful people plan for “ifs” before they arrive. |
🧱 CROSS-REFERENCES IN ZEGARELLI’S ETHOS
- GRZ98_3: The Ant and the Grasshopper – lays groundwork for seasonal preparation, but in a moralistic binary; the Boar/ Fox contrast is more nuanced.
- GRZ111 / GRZ26: Be Prepared – the business analog.
- GRZ189: Three Noble Cardinal Rules of Wisdom – includes temporal prudence.
- GRZ183 (ONE): Jesus’s “shrewd planning” as moral prudence.
- GRZ171: Late American Lifeboat Debate – political failure through lack of foresight.
- GRZ24: Epilogue on Aesop’s wisdom—this article fits squarely within the “Essential 15.”
🧾 CONCLUSION
“Prepare, Prepare, Prepare” isn’t just a lesson in readiness. It’s a challenge to modern hubris—the assumption that cleverness or present comfort negates the need for discipline and preparation. Zegarelli reframes preparedness as a moral virtue grounded in temporal intelligence, not reactionary stress. The Boar is not merely cautious—he is sovereign over his domain because he governs time with foresight.
And those who mock preparation?
“The onlookers will mock him…”
Until they’re running from the wolves.
20250622.4o
I am going to re-post. Any new thoughts on this one?
Yes. I would retain the June 2025 assessment, but I now see three important refinements after our subsequent discussions of Father Time, Wisdom and Luck, The Scorpion and the Frog, GRZ145, and the distinction between Hope and preparation.
The most important is this: The Wild Boar is not preparing because he knows danger will come. He is preparing precisely because he does not know whether, when, or how danger will come.
That distinction moves the fable from ordinary prudence into a much more sophisticated doctrine of action under uncertainty.
1. The Wild Boar understands the difference between prediction and preparation
The Fox says:
“What a waste of time. There’s no danger here.”
The Boar responds:
“True, that there is no danger here now … but if danger should come, I will not have time then to sharpen my weapons.”
Notice that the Boar does not dispute the Fox’s observation.
The Fox is correct about the present.
There is no demonstrated immediate danger.
The Boar’s superior judgment concerns the future, not the present.
The Fox implicitly reasons:
No danger exists now; therefore, preparation has no present value.
The Boar reasons:
No danger exists now; therefore, I presently possess an opportunity to prepare that may not exist when danger arrives.
The same factual circumstance produces opposite conclusions because the actors assign different values to time.
That is an important insight I did not sufficiently isolate in 2025.
The Fox treats the absence of danger as a reason for inaction.
The Boar treats it as an opportunity for action.
And neither requires a prediction that an attack will actually occur.
2. This is Father Time‘s quiet siege in another form
Our recent discussion of The Scariest Sound in the World and The Three Noble Cardinal Rules of Wisdom gives the Boar’s behavior additional philosophical depth.
Mother Nature attacks.
Father Time besieges.
The Boar recognizes that Father Time is continuously changing the value of available choices.
At Time 1, sharpening tusks is possible.
At Time 2, an enemy may arrive.
At Time 3, the opportunity to sharpen may have disappeared.
The Boar cannot control when Mother Nature supplies the danger.
But he can control what he does while Father Time still permits preparation.
This is precisely the distinction between the sage and fool in your later Father Time doctrine.
The sage acts while choice remains. The fool waits until necessity eliminates the choice.
The Boar is therefore not merely respecting Time.
He is converting presently available time into future capability.
That connects directly to your maxim:
“Each day is part investment for tomorrow, part reward for yesterday.”
The sharpening is an investment.
Its return is not necessarily victory.
Its return is preparedness—the preservation of a future option to defend oneself effectively.
That is a more precise account of what the Boar purchases with his present labor.
3. The Ant and Grasshopper comparison deserves further emphasis
Your article already identifies an important difference.
In The Ant and the Grasshopper, winter is certain.
The uncertainty concerns the Grasshopper’s response to a predictable future condition.
But in The Wild Boar and the Fox, the danger is contingent.
The Boar does not know whether it will occur.
This makes the two fables complementary rather than repetitive.
| Ant and Grasshopper | Wild Boar and Fox | |
|---|---|---|
| Future event | Winter is expected | Attack is uncertain |
| Principal problem | Preparing for predictable necessity | Preparing for contingent risk |
| Failure of judgment | Neglecting a known future need | Discounting an uncertain future threat |
| Wise action | Accumulate provisions | Maintain defensive capability |
And there is an important consequence.
A person who prepares for a certain event is exercising foresight.
A person who prepares intelligently for an uncertain event is also exercising risk management.
The latter requires weighing probability, severity, cost, and the time needed to respond.
That is the more sophisticated lesson of the Boar.
4. The Boar does not merely prepare for danger. He preserves agency.
This is the most important new correlation with The Scorpion and the Frog, Horse, Hunter and Stag, and The Rabbit, Weasel and Cat.
In each of those fables, the protagonist loses control of a situation by allowing circumstances or another actor to eliminate the available means of protection.
The Frog permits the Scorpion onto his back.
The Horse accepts the Hunter’s bit and saddle.
The Rabbit and Weasel approach the Cat.
The Boar does the opposite.
He uses his present freedom to preserve his future ability to resist.
The important principle is:
Preparation is the present exercise of agency to preserve agency against future necessity.
This also explains why the Boar’s sharpening is not merely a physical act.
He is preserving the ability to choose, resist, and survive when the circumstances become less favorable.
And it fits GRZ145: Mother Nature’s system of work and competition does not promise an organism time to prepare after a threat materializes.
5. The Fox’s mockery is a failure of causal reasoning
Your article emphasizes that the Fox is ordinarily Aesop’s clever character, yet here he displays neither foresight nor humility.
I think the reversal is particularly effective because the Fox makes two different errors.
First, he confuses an observation with a prediction:
There is no danger now → there will be no danger requiring present preparation.
Second, he mistakes an apparent absence of immediate benefit for an absence of value.
The Boar’s sharpening produces no visible victory.
No predator is defeated.
No immediate reward is obtained.
But the Boar acquires something the Fox fails to value: readiness.
This is exactly our Wisdom and Luck distinction.
The quality of a decision is not established by the immediate outcome.
Suppose no predator ever arrives. The Boar may still have made a wise decision if the cost of sharpening was reasonable relative to the risk it addressed.
Conversely, suppose the Fox never encounters danger. His good fortune does not establish that his reasoning was wise.
That is an important refinement to the original review.
6. The Boar is not motivated by Hope; he is managing uncertainty
Our persistent friend appears again.
You write:
“Strategy is thinking ahead. Planning for the future, not reacting in the moment. Hope has its place, but hope is bad strategy.”
The Boar could hope that danger never comes.
He could hope that he will somehow prevail if it does.
But he instead acts upon what he can control.
He does not require certainty.
He does not even require a prediction that danger is probable.
He recognizes a material possibility and takes a proportionate preventive action.
The distinction is:
Hope: I desire a favorable future.
Prediction: I believe a particular future is likely.
Preparation: I improve my ability to respond across possible futures.
The third can remain rational even when the first two are uncertain.
And that is why the Boar’s little word “if” is so important.
The conditional does not assert the event.
It recognizes the contingency.
7. The Cardinal Virtues provide a fuller explanation
I would revise the earlier assessment’s description of preparedness as an ethical virtue in itself.
Preparedness is an expression of the Cardinal Virtues when properly applied, rather than an independent guarantee of virtue.
Wisdom identifies the possibility of danger and the appropriate response.
Courage confronts the prospect rather than denying it.
Temperance supplies the discipline to work when comfort and leisure are available.
Justice harmonizes the preparation with the legitimate demands of the whole, preventing excessive preparation from consuming resources needed for other purposes.
That last point matters.
A person can overprepare.
Preparation can become obsession, waste, or a form of avoidance.
The Boar is wise because his action appears proportionate to his circumstances—not merely because he is preparing.
This is consistent with your larger doctrine that an otherwise useful attribute can become destructive when carried beyond its proper objective.
8. There is an especially useful correlation to The Evolution of Revolution
In that article, we distinguished the Courage required to continue from the Temperance required to stop.
Here the challenge is different but complementary.
The Boar must work while there is no immediate external pressure to do so.
He must overcome the temptation to postpone.
But once his tusks are sufficiently sharp, Wisdom must also know when preparation has achieved its objective.
Thus the same principle applies:
The sage knows when to begin, when to continue, and when to stop.
The Fox does not know when to begin.
An obsessive Boar might not know when to stop.
Wisdom governs both.
9. The most interesting new connection may be to your Father Time investment maxim
Your article opens with:
“Each day is part investment for tomorrow, part reward for yesterday.”
We recently distinguished spending time from investing time.
Everyone spends time.
The sage attempts to convert some of that expenditure into future returns.
The Boar does precisely that.
He spends a portion of today’s comfort acquiring tomorrow’s defensive capacity.
And the return may be realized even if no battle occurs.
Why?
Because preparedness itself can reduce vulnerability, expand options, and create security.
The Boar is not purchasing a guaranteed victory.
He is purchasing a better position from which to confront an uncertain future.
That is a more sophisticated understanding of investment than merely exchanging present effort for a known future reward.
It also connects to the 2024 Father Time doctrine: the sage recognizes that opportunities available now may disappear without warning.
My updated assessment
I would supplement the existing review with this:
Read against Zegarelli’s later development of Father Time, Hope, contextual power, and the Cardinal Virtues, The Wild Boar and the Fox becomes an examination of the preservation of agency under uncertainty. The Fox correctly observes that no immediate danger exists, but mistakenly treats that present condition as sufficient reason to reject preparation. The Boar recognizes the opposite: the absence of immediate danger creates the opportunity to acquire capabilities that may be unavailable when danger materializes. Unlike The Ant and the Grasshopper, where winter is expected, this fable concerns a contingent threat. The Boar therefore demonstrates not merely foresight but disciplined risk management, converting presently available time into future defensive capacity without requiring certainty that the investment will be used. His wisdom resides in recognizing that preparedness can preserve choice when necessity later constrains it. The Fox’s ridicule reveals the failure to distinguish immediate utility from prospective value, and the absence of present danger from the absence of future risk.
And I think the cleanest new synthesis is:
The Fox sees no danger and concludes there is no reason to prepare. The Boar sees no danger and recognizes that this is precisely the time to prepare.
That is the entire fable in two sentences.
Before reposting
One Latin maxim also deserves attention if you are continuing your cleanup:
“Spes est malum ars imperatoria.”
For “Hope is bad strategy,” I would use:
“Spes malum consilium est.”
This is more natural Latin, with malum agreeing with the neuter consilium.
Otherwise, I would retain the article. The additional references to the Primary Objective, the Cardinal Rules, and Hope are substantively appropriate.
And one final observation: the Boar’s wisdom is not that he knows what tomorrow will bring.
It is that he knows what tomorrow may take away: the opportunity to prepare today.
That is the deepest connection to Father Time, and the principal addition I would make to the 2025 assessment.
20261014-6.1
Suits – [MUID319X] – Prepare
© 2013 Arnold Zegarelli and Gregg Zegarelli, Esq.
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/prepare-29-wild-boar-fox-essential-aesop-back-gregg-zegarelli-esq-
GRZ98_29.20250622 GRZUID98_29