The Donkey and the carrot …
Filipo really enjoyed helping his
father in the flour mill. He led the
donkey up to the millstone, tied it
securely, fixed over its head a stick,
at the end of which he suspended
the proverbial carrot.
After that, he only had to give
the donkey a couple of shoves to start
it moving.
From morning to evening the animal
circled slowly following the carrot,
while Filipo daydreamed, leaning up
against bags of flour. His father
Ernesto carried the sheaves of corn
to the barn and spent time checking
the wheels of the huge mill.
The young boy’s donkey was very reliable,
and day after day it plodded fruitlessly
after the carrot that it would never get.
One evening when the exhausted donkey
had finished its last circle and Filipo
was helping his father arrange the bags
of flour, he said thoughtfully:
“Look at this foolish donkey, going
around and around day in and day out in
the heat, without food or drink, trying
to reach a carrot that it has no hope
of getting.
I will never be like that.”
Filipo’s father dropped his last sack,
put his hands on his hips and eyed his son,
“Do you think we are so different
from the donkey? We work equally hard
from morning until night. Then we return
home, eat some food and go to bed where
we dream that with a little luck,
life will be a little easier tomorrow;
that fortune will smile on us and that
we won’t have to work anymore.
But in the morning with our aching backs
and our tired hands, we understand just
how far away the carrot is, and just how
long it will be before we reach it.”
………… ……… ……… ……… …
Is our society any different from the
theme of this short story? We chase success
relentlessly, to fulfil our desires for
wealth and comfort.
The carrot?
The wonderful advertisements, the fabulous
shop windows and the salesmen encouraging
us to consume.
Wouldn’t it be worth minimizing our
ambitions and desires so that we could
have the possibility of satisfying them
– and actually GET the carrot?
--author unknown--
………… ……… ……… ……… …
“Inner satisfaction is a truth of which we
could be more hopeful”.
Spinoza