It's easy to ridicule the Tortoise who dreams of flying. A glance at the carapace convinces us of a free fall landing, but the Tortoise in his shell is oblivious to his fate and limitations. Aesop makes us laugh at ourselves, not the hapless Tortoise. How many crash landings have we made because of blindness to personal limitations and filled with personal ambition?
Limitations seem so obvious, yet we soar upwards oblivious to final downfall.
Aesop's Fables: The Dog and the Shadow http://www.pacificnet.net/~johnr/cgi/aes... dog crossing over a bridge
We sneer at the dog taking a plunge off the bridge to dash after a reflection in the stream—an illusion, but rarely apply it to our own fleeting dreams and aspirations. The person investing in a scam to earn gobs of money, but ends up broke with legal complicaitons.
What do they have to do with the Fisherman and his Wife?
Pushkin: The Fisherman and the Goldfish http://home.freeuk.com/russica4/books/go... Translated by Louis Zelikoff; Illustrated by B. Dekhteryov
Lacquer Box: Fisherman and the Fish http://www.lacquerbox.com/fisherman-long... reduction of Pushkin
Pushkin and Brothers Grimm are frequently attributed as sources. An easy interpretation the story, regarding the poor fisherman who catches the talking flounder, is he has a greedy wife. She is insatiable, a common theme for the Dog and his Shadow. There's never enough to keep the old dog happy.
Folktales of Dissatisfaction and Greed http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0555.html
Family Management: Margeret Hunt's, Grimm's Household Tales, Fisherman and his Wife http://www.familymanagement.com/literacy...
Last week, an interesting book, Conquering Panic and Anxiety Disorders by Jenna Glatzer, crossed my desk, alerting me that perhaps the moral isn't greed, but self-image and ambition.
The Tortoise is dissatisfied with his lot in life and wishes to be Sweeney among the nightingales; thus destroys himself. How many people forgot parachutes lately? Martha Stewart, Enron, World.com, Arthur Anderson, etc. Although these are company names, the individual corporate administrators attempted to fly beyond their means and crash landed. Their egos destroyed not only companies, but the lives as employees scrambled for new jobs. The Tortoise destroys only himself by his deluded ambition.
The fable of the dog is similar. Dissatisfied with what he already has, he takes a dive and loses.
"To look successful" in a highly pressurized society, many people suffer panic disorders. They learn to reject themselves through the terror of being rejected by others. The front of the NYT or Seattle-pi carries the latest images from Italy in Haute Couture, making fashionable excessive spending on oftentimes absolutely ridiculous clothing. Television and film industy espouse the ideal female body, exploit bodies, but not always brains or acting ability. Headlines scream about the new ravishing Demi, although her body was bought through artificial improvement. Charlie's Angels is hailed as feminist advancement in film by which women should model their lives; but has little psychological or intellectual depth. The message clearly states that without a Maserati body, you're nix. Brains don't count, nor do talents; you need "the look".
