[Oe List ...] a Grimm's fable (giving Aesop a run for his money)

[Bill Schlesinger]

There are two fundamental paradigms of life.  One is that life is about
getting.  The other is that life is about giving.  Neither one protects us
from death, disease or disappointment.  But we choose - over and over -
which one is ours in every moment.  No community in history has ever
disappeared because it was caught up in giving.  Empires focused on getting
aren't around any more.  People stopped caring at their center.  The
paradigms of the ant and grasshopper are intended to generate fear.  Our
eschatological hero's stories don't exactly fit here, do they?

 

Bill Schlesinger
Project Vida
3607 Rivera Ave
El Paso, TX 79905
(915) 533-7057 x 207
(915) 490-6148 mobile
(915) 533-7158 fax
bschlesinger.pv at tachc.org
www.projectvidaelpaso.org

 

  _____  

From: oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf
Of LAURELCG at aol.com
Sent: Friday, September 11, 2009 2:38 PM
To: oe at wedgeblade.net
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] a Grimm's fable (giving Aesop a run for his
money)

 

And then there's the version that says the ant opened his heart to the
grasshopper and shared his provisions in exchange for the beautiful music
the grasshopper made, and they had a great, celebrational winter. Come on,
let's  open our hearts to a future that is already open! Anything can happen
in the next moment.

 

Blessings,

Jann

 

In a message dated 9/11/2009 1:32:10 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
susan at gmdtech.com writes:

Below is the old version and then a modern day fable with a pretty grim
conclusion in both cases.  It's making the rounds on the internet and I
thought it somewhat apros pos of our discussion.

 

I guess what I've been trying to say is that if you keep forcibly taking
from those who have to give to those who haven't, those who have will just
stop producing at some point -- they will decide it makes more sense to be
on the taking than the giving end.

 

Susan

 

 

THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER

 

 

OLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long,

building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

 

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and

plays the summer away.

 

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.

 

The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

 

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

 

 

 

MODERN VERSION:

 

 

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his

house and laying up supplies for the winter.

 

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and

plays the summer away.

 

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and

demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed

while others are cold and starving.

 

CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the

shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable

home with a table filled with food.  America is stunned by the sharp
contrast.

 

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor

grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

 

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody

cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'

 

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant 's house

where the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.'

Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the

grasshopper's sake.

 

Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that

the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call

for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

 

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act

retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

 

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green

bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home

is confiscated by the government.

 

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of

the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens

to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't

maintain it.

 

The ant has disappeared in the snow.

 

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the

house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize

the once peaceful neighborhood.

 

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