Original Photograph from Flickr
click for more
The fox tail tale
Ah yes, quite a tail tale. The fox cruelly and tragically loses the tail in a trap, you know how unnecessarily violent those traps can be. Does our fox give up, no! The fox embraces a tailless life, and in a bold move takes a stand against bullying and other pressures the disabled fox feels, by starting a campaign for equality in a tailless society. Yet, somehow this fable casts our fox as a villain who is trying to trick the society of foxes. Is this fable truly suggesting when faced with adversity you should give up?
I do have a little tale about adversity, well, that might be as close as I get to the fox’s tail tale in today's tale.
Did you know Leo, beautiful Leo at the booth of beautiful people over there, writes poetry. I don’t believe he wants to be a poet but I do think he longs for the intense life attributed to poets. A life of consuming all, a hedonists approach that is revered because of the great works of art that flow from that life, perhaps more the life of a musician than that of a poet.
Leo told me of a poem he wrote called Imaginary Candy. He described it as a poem about a woman called Candy using all the imagery of consuming candy to create an orgy of sensual sensation. I have not read the poem so I cannot vouch for its titillation, but I am sure you can imagine how delightful it could be.
In this tale the poem called Imaginary Candy is playing the role of the fox’s tail. Just as the fox strutted about showing off the magnificent tale so did Leo strut about showing off his poems, he had a little group to whom he sent his best poem of the week at the end of the day before meeting the very same group at the pub. The trap is being played by a cutting remark about a spelling mistake that significantly changed the meaning of the poem. Leo did not tell me the spelling mistake, nor did he say who had made the cutting remark, but he did say he had found it so deeply cutting because the person who made the remark was Imaginary Candy. The very person he was trying to impress had laughed at him.
Well, like the fox, Leo skulked away to lick his wounds, and to make a decision. Would he take inspiration from the fox and seek the limelight again, perhaps with new erotic or even explicit poetry? Or would he listen to the moral of the tale and quietly stop sharing poems. Leo, I am pleased to say, took the former, and like the fox again took centre stage. The next week he shared a poem again, but was a little more careful to check over the spelling and a little less ambitious with his imagery. And the week after that he shared another, again more cautious. The poems did not have the raw passion of Imaginary Candy. The cutting remark had a dousing effect on his inspiration. And the week after that he missed his poetry deadline. And no one said a word in the pub. And quietly the poetry tradition ended.
I say shame on Imaginary Candy for being so mean in her pedantry. And shame on the society of foxes for not lopping off their tails and creating equality in a tailless society.
Pitfall of the boast
There are a few fables about the pitfalls of...
On self help
All of us behave like the wagoner in the...
Be cautious
A fable about a scorpion warning a boy not...
Acquaintance softens prejudice
I am troubled by the fable of the fox and...
Promoted by personal shame
A FOX caught in a trap escaped, but in so...
Hedonists & Heathens
The booth has a large crowd of regulars that...
Aesops Playground
Welcome to Aesops Playground, the finest...
