Fabled Land

[labelwench]

Upon reflection, I now realize that the broader aspect of my education and understanding has been learned from listening to the oral teachings of mentors in many forms and forums.

This is also interesting, in that an oral history is truly a "living language" as it pertains to the way one lives their life. All that is written may at some point be edited to suit the order of the day, but the living and teaching of a way of life that respects all things, is an event that lives on without documentation.

Delightful to me, is that with the advent of the internet, many people are taking it upon themselves to share the fables of various cultures, and the similarities and the differences can be of great assistance in allowing us to explore the values we each cherish.

The purpose of this thread, then, is merely to offer a venue for sharing the many fables, cliches, parables and quotations that have shaped us in our thinking.

Clever, foolish, cheerful, sad, obvious and subtle, these tidbits of trivia offer much to think about in few words.

Come share with me, and tell your favorite teaching story, be it one of old or a more current tale.

Here, to start, is a fable regarding the value of working together....

The Four Oxen and the Lion

A Lion used to prowl about a field in which Four Oxen used to
dwell. Many a time he tried to attack them; but whenever he came
near they turned their tails to one another, so that whichever way
he approached them he was met by the horns of one of them. At
last, however, they fell a-quarrelling among themselves, and each
went off to pasture alone in a separate corner of the field. Then
the Lion attacked them one by one and soon made an end of all
four.


United we stand, divided we fall.

[labelwench]

This short tale speaks to the value of money. Money gets blamed for all manner of ills, when, perchance, it is the fault of what use the money is put to by those who have it....

The Miser


A MISER sold all that he had and bought a lump of gold, which he buried in a hole in the ground by the side of an old wall and went to look at daily.

One of his workmen observed his frequent visits to the spot and decided to watch his movements. He soon discovered the secret of the hidden treasure, and digging down, came to the lump of gold, and stole it.

The Miser, on his next visit, found the hole empty and began to tear his hair and to make loud lamentations. A neighbor, seeing him overcome with grief and learning the cause, said, "Pray do not grieve so; but go and take a stone, and place it in the hole, and fancy that the gold is still lying there. It will do you quite the same service; for when the gold was there, you had it not, as you did not make the slightest use of it."

[labelwench]

How often we view matters only superficially, and fail to comprehend the broader or longer view of a circumstance.

The Rose and the Amaranth


A Rose and an Amaranth blossomed side by side in a garden, and the Amaranth said to her neighbor, "How I envy you your beauty and your sweet scent! No wonder you are such a universal favorite."

But the Rose replied with a shade of sadness in her voice, "Ah, my dear friend, I bloom but for a time: my petals soon wither and fall, and then I die. But your flowers never fade, even if they are cut; for they are everlasting."


"Greatness carries its own penalties."

[labelwench]

And a few short stories thrown in.....

The White Horse
(Cree Tribe)
retold by
S. E. Schlosser


A Cree chief had a very beautiful daughter who was sought after by many brave warriors. There were two suitors who led the rivalry for her hand, a Cree chief from Lake Winnipegosis and a Sioux chief from Devil's Lake. The girl herself favored the Cree warrior, and when he brought a beautiful white horse from Mexico as a gift for her father, the man agreed to the marriage.

The Sioux chief was enraged by the rejection of his suit. On the day of the wedding, he gathered a war-party and came thundering across the plains toward the home of the beautiful maiden. The Cree chief tossed his lovely bride on top of the white horse and leapt upon his own gray steed. The couple fled to the west with the rejected Sioux and his war-party on their heels.

The canny Cree chief doubled back several times and the couple hid among the prairie bluffs. For a time, it seemed as if they had lost the Sioux. But once they were on the plains again, the beautiful white horse was visible for miles, and the war party soon found them. A rain of arrows fell upon the fleeing lovers, and the warrior and his bride fell dead from their mounts. At once, the Sioux captured the gray steed, but the white horse evaded them. One man claimed he saw the spirit of the young bride enter into the horse just before it fled from their clutches.

The white horse roamed the prairies for many years following the death of the Cree warrior and his lovely bride. The inhabitants feared to approach the horse, since the spirit of the maiden dwelled within it. Long after its physical body passed away, the soul of the white horse continued to gallop across the plains, and the land where it roamed became known as the White Horse Plain. They say that the soul of the white horse continues to haunt the prairie to this very day.

A statue of the white horse was erected at St. Francois Xavier on the Trans-Canada Highway west of Winnipeg, to remind all who see it of the phantom white horse and the beautiful maiden who once rode it.

[labelwench]

The following fable is a double-edged one, thereby guaranteed to offend some, so allow me to apologise in advance.

However, it does have a thing or two to instruct in regard to perspective, so for this day, I be Labelwitch...... , the evil cloned sister of Labelwench, lol....

The Witch's Steed

A BROOMSTICK which had long served a witch as a steed complained of the nature of its employment, which it thought degrading.

"Very well," said the Witch, "I will give you work in which you will be associated with intellect - you will come in contact with brains. I shall present you to a housewife."

"What!" said the Broomstick, "do you consider the hands of a housewife intellectual?"

"I referred," said the Witch, "to the head of her good man."

[labelwench]

Some children turned me on to this one, they finding all of the assumptions and replacements very entertaining.

Trust the children to point out the obvious, that adults often have a tendency to leap to conclusions.

Don't really think there is anything too shocking here, just an excellent and entertaining lesson in the form of a lively song...

Tha Arrogant Worms , Assumptions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixM8j...eature=related

[austintorn@aol.com]

The writer’s pen stood forth, being first, instructing the artist’s sylus to illustrate the words of the epic, noting that a picture was worth a thousand words.

“Perhaps we don’t even need the words”, retorted the artist’s stylus, “as I am worth so many”.

“Well,” replied the writer’s pen, “it’s true that many now refuse to read books without lots of pictures in them.”

“How sad, for I guess some words are needed to round out the tale.”

“True, for two sides of the brain can then combine in unity.”

“Or I could draw the pictures first and then you could write the words to match.”

“It could be like that sometimes, I suppose.”

“OK, shake; it’s a deal either way, for we need each other.”

[labelwench]

The Dancing Monkeys


A PRINCE had some Monkeys trained to dance. Being naturally
great mimics of men's actions, they showed themselves most apt
pupils, and when arrayed in their rich clothes and masks, they
danced as well as any of the courtiers. The spectacle was often
repeated with great applause, till on one occasion a courtier,
bent on mischief, took from his pocket a handful of nuts and
threw them upon the stage. The Monkeys at the sight of the nuts
forgot their dancing and became (as indeed they were) Monkeys
instead of actors. Pulling off their masks and tearing their
robes, they fought with one another for the nuts. The dancing
spectacle thus came to an end amidst the laughter and ridicule of
the audience.


-"Not everything you see is what it appears to be.

[labelwench]

Was there ever a more fabled land than The World Of Warcraft?

With over 12 million subscribers, who actually pay monthly billing to participate, I think I'll use this thread as an opportunity to scope out what the attraction may be......