A New Moral

Yesterday morning, as I was driving my granddaughter to school, we listened to Aesop's Fables.  We arrived just as the narrator was reading the fable of Androcles and the Lion.  I parked the car but didn't get out of the car because I wanted to hear how the fable ended.

My granddaughter said, "C'mon Grandma, let's go?" 

"Don't you want to hear how it ends?"

"I know how it ends."

"Does the lion kill Androcles?"

"Yes."

"Well, what's the moral?"

"The moral is that sometimes you have to do what you have to do."

"Oh."

After kissing my granddaughter goodbye, I went to the car and listened to the end of the fable.  Because Androcles once helped the lion by taking a torn out of his paw, the lion recognized Androcles in Circus Maximus and didn't kill him.  In fact, he kissed him and purred!  The crowd was amazed, and the emperor freed both the lion and Androcles in recognition of Androcles kindness and friendship.

You have to do what you have to do.  Where did she get that from?

Flattery

In Matt 22:15-21, I was reminded of an Aesop Fable I was reading to my granddaughter.  The scripture verse was The Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech.  They sent their disciples to him with the Horodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.  And you are not concerned with anyone's opinion, for you do not regard a person's status..."
    Knowing their malice, Jesus said, "why are you testing me, you hypocrites? ..."

The Pharisees flattered Jesus telling Him that they knew He was truthful.  But their flattery was obvious.  Jesus knows their hearts and called them hypocrites!

Aesop has a fable about a sly fox and a bird.  The bird had a big yummy cube of cheese in its beak.  The fox wanted it.  So the fox flattered the bird.  "I heard that you had the most beautiful voice in the forest."  The bird was a fool and fell for the flattery.  He opened his beak to sing and in doing that the cube of cheese fell out and down into the mouth of the fox.  This time flattery worked.

Don't be susceptible to flattery.  Be suspicious of anyone flattering you.

Aesop Reinterpreted

A very hungry fox saw some bunches of grapes hanging from an arbor.  He tried and tried to reach them, but couldn't.  Going away, he said to himself, "Oh, they were sour, anyway."

Moral: People who can't get something they were after decide that they don't really want it.

This fable is from Aesop's "The Fox and the Grapes".  In my experience, however, people pretend they really didn't want it.