Moral of the story

A few days ago, one boring weekend afternoon, mom and me were recollecting fairy tales of yester years. It was fun trying to remember the stories and thinking how we used to be crazy of them, even if read to us time and again. I was smiling thinking of all that, when mom said something to change my smile into beads of thoughts. Those stories all have morals, which are presented at the end to the children. But they also have a deeper moral, which is left to the adult to decipher.

I was amazed. She quoted two examples. First, the famous story of the race between the tortoise and the hare. There is practically none, who doesnt know the story of the hare and tortoise. And the moral and proverb associated with it is embedded so deep, that one would blurt out "Slow and steady wins the race", even if woken up in the middle of the night! But far deeper and more intense is a moral that is to be identified by us. Any guess? No? Well, its 'self-confidence'. Never once did the tortoise doubt that it would be able to compete with the hare. What would we have thought, had we been in the position of the tortoise? There is a probability that we might have thought that the rabbit being so fast, its not worth even attempting to race with it. But the tortise was filled with self-confidence. As opposed to the rabbit being overwhelmed with over-confidence. He had the cheek to take a nap in between the race! We should be like the tortoise. We should have the confidence in oneself and have the motto "I can and I will".

Another example she quoted is the story of the king who had donkey ears. This story is not as famous as the first, so I will first introduce the story and then bring in the moral and its interpretation. There was this king, a good king in that. The king wanted to hear event the minutest of problems faced by the people of his kingdom. So he prayed to God for the best of ears, so as to enable him to hear every tiny sound. God blessed him with the best of ears, which happened to be that of a donkey!!! Now the king had donkey ears. He was embarrassed by this and tried to hide it with his turban/crown. But he had to trim his hair, and had to remove his turban in front of the barber. The barber was undoubtedly astonished by this discovery that the King had donkey ears. The king warned the barber, that he was not to repeat this to anyone, else he would be beheaded. But the barber found it ever so difficult to resist telling this fact to someone. He started loosing his cool, his composure, as a result of carrying such a big secret in his heart.

Out of extreme frustration, he rushed into the forest and found the hollow trunk of a rotting tree and screamed into the hollow, "The king has donkey ear". He realized a new found relief from the venting out of this huge burden he was carrying. But a couple of days later, a musical instrument maker was out in the forest, looking for wood to make a drum. He chanced upon the very same tree, and found that its wood would be most ideal for the drum, also that it was an old tree rotting away, and could save a new tree from being axed. He chopped the tree, and made a drum out of it. The drum was sold to the street drummer and he in turn decided to perform in the king's honorable presence. The moment his drum stick hit the drum, the normal 'thud thud' sounds were replaced with the words "the king has donkey ears". The whole assembly heard this and the king became a laughing stock. The barber was caught and beheaded, and the king's secret was out open to everyone.

Coming to the moral, one cannot or rather should not keep pent up feelings and emotions within oneself. Its better to vent out negetive thoughts and emotions and be free of them, than to get oneself all worked up and disfunctional. One must learn to regulate anger and negetivity and channelize them into positive thoughts and creativity. Though the stories are far fetched, they teach us valuable lessons in life. Lets start recollecting all our childhood fairy tales, and bringing out the true morals in them. Friends, if any of you are able to think in these lines and wish to bring out morals to be shared, please feel free to post comments to this blog. And let the world benefit.

 

Thank you Andal ma'am.

 

Padmini ma'am thank you for stepping in. Can any of you suggest other stories for which we can think of deeper morals for us adults?

 

Shubha, me too... Even I have started to change. And I am trying to tune the venting into more gentle forms rather than angry outbursts. It is already working wonders in daily life.

 

Hi Sunitha,

Thanks for the fb.