I am not sure if it is an Aesop's Fable or simply a little story from my primary school days, but there is a story about How the Bear Got Its Tale
To the best of my recollection the story describes the Bear as at one time having a long tail as well as having a yen for the taste of fish. As it was in the winter, the only way the Bear was able to do any fishing was to make a hole in the ice (the story did not give details as to how this was done) and then the Bear, not having anything else on hand subsequently placed his tail into the hole as bait and waited for the fish to nibble, and ultimately become his dinner. The bear in the story waited, and waited, and waited..and then he waited some more. He waited all through the night in this position until he felt something distinctly bite on his tail. The bear jumped up and turned around quickly to see what his breakfast was going to look like only to see that his tail had been left in the frozen ice. Hence that is why the bear to this day has a short tail.
Gruesome sounding isn't it? I am not quite sure what the moral of the story is or why someone thought that that story should be chosen to terrorize the minds of small children for a generation.
Was the message about fishing and how one should always carry appropriate fishing gear? Or if it was written today, would it be a comment upon how long it took the ice to actually freeze the tail hard enough to rip it off as it might be interpreted by the Green House Gas Environmentalists?
Personally, I think the story is about waiting and how one can get ripped off in time, money, and effort and yes even TAILS, if one decides to wait too long for something, whatever that something may be.
It may be waiting for your order in a restaurant, which has gotten inadvertently dropped on the floor in the kitchen , while your family of 6 waits patiently for 45 minutes as others around you are served their orders.
It may be waiting for the 'party to which you dialed' has put you on hold and you have listened to the whole Henri Mancini album twice until it is past the time that the government office you have called two time zones away is open until after the long weekend.
The story may even about waiting 2 or more hours to be called into the office of some professional advisor such as a doctor, lawyer, dentist or even mental health professional, all because you have gotten the date wrong and were supposed to be there at that same time of day but one day earlier.
Could the message of this story be more about the survival of the fittest?..or more appropriately the smartest? Obviously the intelligence of the fish far surpasses that of the Bear...not surprisingly as fish do travel in schools and bears travel without poles.
Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.
Abraham Lincoln
To the best of my recollection the story describes the Bear as at one time having a long tail as well as having a yen for the taste of fish. As it was in the winter, the only way the Bear was able to do any fishing was to make a hole in the ice (the story did not give details as to how this was done) and then the Bear, not having anything else on hand subsequently placed his tail into the hole as bait and waited for the fish to nibble, and ultimately become his dinner. The bear in the story waited, and waited, and waited..and then he waited some more. He waited all through the night in this position until he felt something distinctly bite on his tail. The bear jumped up and turned around quickly to see what his breakfast was going to look like only to see that his tail had been left in the frozen ice. Hence that is why the bear to this day has a short tail.
Gruesome sounding isn't it? I am not quite sure what the moral of the story is or why someone thought that that story should be chosen to terrorize the minds of small children for a generation.
Was the message about fishing and how one should always carry appropriate fishing gear? Or if it was written today, would it be a comment upon how long it took the ice to actually freeze the tail hard enough to rip it off as it might be interpreted by the Green House Gas Environmentalists?
Personally, I think the story is about waiting and how one can get ripped off in time, money, and effort and yes even TAILS, if one decides to wait too long for something, whatever that something may be.
It may be waiting for your order in a restaurant, which has gotten inadvertently dropped on the floor in the kitchen , while your family of 6 waits patiently for 45 minutes as others around you are served their orders.
It may be waiting for the 'party to which you dialed' has put you on hold and you have listened to the whole Henri Mancini album twice until it is past the time that the government office you have called two time zones away is open until after the long weekend.
The story may even about waiting 2 or more hours to be called into the office of some professional advisor such as a doctor, lawyer, dentist or even mental health professional, all because you have gotten the date wrong and were supposed to be there at that same time of day but one day earlier.
Could the message of this story be more about the survival of the fittest?..or more appropriately the smartest? Obviously the intelligence of the fish far surpasses that of the Bear...not surprisingly as fish do travel in schools and bears travel without poles.
Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.
Abraham Lincoln
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