When it comes to fables, my favourite are those of Aesop. For me, he is the undisputed master of fables or, — parables. I love parables, too, but I love fables more.
The Bible has parables, not fables, although these two are often interchanged. Parables and fables are succinct stories that aim to teach lessons to people. Parables use human characters while fables use animals or nature, such as a tree, wind, the sun, a rock, etc. ascribing them with human characteristics.
I love fables more because animals are real cute — cuter than some humans. And I am not speaking of physical appearances. But that’s another story. So, back to Aesop.
It is not really clear who Aesop was as there are varying legends of who he was and where he was from. Some stories say he was a Greek slave, who because of his great skill not only as a story teller but as advisor to kings, like Joseph was to the Pharaoh perhaps, gained his freedom.
Some tales say Aesop was from ancient Ethiopia, a deeply spiritual man that made him beautiful inside but very ugly in outside appearance. Nothing is certain about Aesop’s identity. His stories were passed on orally from generation to generation until someone put them in its written form.
One thing is sure — I love Aesop and his fables. If indeed it is true that he was such an ugly looking man, his physical ugliness is the complete opposite of the beauty of all his fables. When I was in my early elementary school years and when I got tired of Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit exploits, I turned to Aesop in the company of animals that talk — my puppy love.
Despite them classroom readings, I went beyond the confines of classrooms and liked them. So from “Pepe and Pilar”, to Peter Rabbit tales, then to fables, the Hardy Boys series and in high school the musts were stories of O. Henry, Somerset Maugham, William Faulkner plus Filipino greats such as Carlos Bulosan, Leon Ma. Guerrero, Nick Joaquin, etc. to what was called “The Great Novels”, which was part of my curriculum at the university.
Again those were classroom reading books which our teacher assigned to us, one per week to be followed by a weeklong discussion of the same. It was during this course that I was introduced to “Catcher in the Rye”, “The Great Gatsby”, “The Sun Also Rises”, “The Plague”, “The Bridge of San Luis Rey”, etc. Of those, not only that the stories were etched in my memory but I took to heart the discussions that followed each book reading.
But still, my love for fables and parables was not diminished. My puppy love stays, and here’s one I like to share from an unknown author, The Parable of the Frozen Sparrow:
Living in our hedgerows was a non-conforming sparrow who decided not to fly south for the winter. However, soon the weather turned so cold that he reluctantly decided to fly south.
In a short time ice began to form on his wings and he fell to Earth in a barnyard, nearly frozen solid. A cow passed by where he had fallen, and crapped on the little sparrow.
The sparrow thought it was the end, but the manure warmed him and defrosted his wings!
Warm and happy, able to breath, he started to sing.
Hearing this birdsong, a large cat came by; the cat cleared away the manure, found the chirping bird, and promptly ate him.
The Moral of the Story: Everyone who craps on you is not necessarily your enemy. Everyone who gets you out of crap is not necessarily your friend. And if you’re warm and happy in a pile of shit, you might just want to keep your mouth shut.
Merry Christmas, all!