“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” ~ Winston Churchill
Oh, let us not be among those who stumble over the truth and hurry away.
Our young ones are counting on us.
So — Marsha and I were on grandparent duty this past week.
It was a lot of fun to spend an extended time with the kids while their dad and stepmom were traveling.
During our time together I stumbled into a kind of truth I’d like to share with you.
It happened one evening when I walked into the living room and saw my grandchildren all fixated on various screens.
It brought back a long ago memory…
…One afternoon shortly after we got our first TV my mom walked into our living room and found all five of us fixated on the television screen.
Perhaps, in her mind, a little too intently.
In no time we found ourselves off to a visit to the Queen Anne Library for a little book learning.
Mother instilled in us all an abiding love for reading and books.
Like Mom did for us 70 years ago, I wondered how I might similarly influence my grandchildren.
Then another memory surfaced — the bedtime stories Mom would read to us. Wow, how we enjoyed those stories!
So I thought, why don’t I adapt my own bedtime story?
So here it is my adaptation of the story of “The Discontented Pig” from an old German folktale (unattributed).
💐
Once upon a time, at the edge of a sleepy village, there lived a pig with the best garden in the kingdom. Fat pumpkins. Crunchy carrots. Cabbages as big as your head. He won a blue ribbon every single year.
But one morning the pig’s back hurt. His hooves were muddy. And he said, “There has to be an easier way to make a living!”
So he packed a little bag and set off down the road.
First he met Thomas the cat, who was playing the violin so sweetly that even the birds stopped to listen.
“I want to do that,” said the pig.
Thomas handed him a violin. The pig drew the bow across the strings.~ Screeeeech! Squawk! Bleeeeat!
“Goodness,” said Thomas. “That sounded like a sheep stepping on a cat.”
“You said you’d teach me!” said the pig.
“I will. It only takes about ten years of practice.”
“Ten years?! That’s as hard as gardening!” said the pig. And off he went.
Next he met a dog making cheese. The pig loved cheese. “Teach me!” he said.
So the pig kneaded and pressed and turned, until he was hot and tired and ready for a nap. “Don’t stop now!” cried the dog. “The cheese will spoil!”
“This is just as hard as gardening,” groaned the pig. And off he went.
Then he met a beekeeper, and the pig thought, Honey! Easy!
He put on the gloves and the veil, reached into the hive, and… Bzzzzz! OUCH! OUCH! OUCH!
“How do I get honey without getting stung?” he squealed. “You don’t,” said the beekeeper kindly. “Beekeepers get stung sometimes.”
“Then it’s too hard,” said the pig. And off he went, rubbing his nose.
At last the pig came to a crowd gathered around a glowing machine. You could ask it anything, and it answered at once, in a voice as smooth as honey.
“How does a violin make music?”
The machine told them, and it was beautiful.
“How do you make cheese?”
The machine told them, and everyone’s mouth watered.
“How do you keep from getting stung?”
The machine had a clever answer, and everyone clapped.
“This is it!” cried the pig.
All the answers and none of the work!
It wasn’t till he got home and thought about his journey away from his garden that it dawned on him.
His machine knowledge wouldn’t change one single thing.
- His violin would still screech.
- His cheese would still spoil.
- His bees would still sting.
- His machine couldn’t pull a single weed.
If he could DO, what good was it to KNOW?
DOING STUFF is what brought him happiness.
So he put on his gloves, went back out to his garden, and got back to work. Before long he was humming a happy tune.
He knew he’d learned a great lesson. His contentment came from DOING WHAT YOU KNOW.
He went to bed that night happier than he had been in a very long time, knowing that when morning came he would have something to DO.
Just a thought…
Pat
That we all might wake up so joy-filled.