Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Advice Given Advice Taken
As the story goes, a girl threw a firebrand at a goat that was eating her corn and the goat's coat caught fire. Maddened with fear, it ran to a haystack and started rubbing against it. The haystack was soon ablaze. The fire spread to the barn and then to the stables in which the royal elephants were housed. Some of the elephants were badly burnt before the fire was finally put out. The men looking after the elephants could not heal their wounds. So the king sent for his own physician. On the way to the palace the physician lay down under a tree for a nap. Hardly had he closed his eyes when he felt something warm running down his face. He got up with a start and found that a crow sitting on a branch directly above him, had spattered him with its droppings. The physician cursed the crow and wiping his face, continued on his way, but in a foul mood. When he reached the palace and the king asked him for a remedy for the elephants' wounds he replied: "Rub the wounds with crow's fat, lots of crow's fat!"
And so a great slaughter of crows began. Thousands were shot and it looked as if the slaughter would continue till all the crows in the kingdom were dead. One day, a crow flew into the palace and settled down in front of the king. Soldiers rushed forward to catch it, but the king waved them back.
"Let it be," he said. "Perhaps it has come to tell me something."
"I have," said the bird. "I am the king of crows and I have come to tell you that you are doing us a great wrong. You are being led astray by a man bent on revenge against my brethren."
"You are making a serious accusation," said the king. "Have you any proof?"
"I have," said the crow. "The proof lies in the fact that crows have no fat, otherwise you would have got bucketfuls of it from the thousands you have already slaughtered."
The king felt ashamed of what he had done and immediately stopped the slaughter of the birds.
What I presume to know has often been shown to be silly. What I know by faith I can only offer as a kindness to be taken or left as seen fit. In the interaction or exchange of ideas, a new understanding of truth may occur, and who knows what great deeds may result? I purport the absurd, but it means nothing if my actions do not purport it as well.
*Bows peace and love*
- posted by -g @ 6:35 AM | | 0 rocks in pond
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