Brain Food #743
Kindness and power
Thoughts of the day
Critic William Empson said, “There is more in the child than any man has been able to keep.” Though these words resonate with the unlived lives that still exist within each of us, the ones we might sometimes think of late at night, they also make me think about values, what we instill in children, what has been instilled within ourselves, and how the harsh realities of adulthood often present the danger of these being forgotten.
Children’s tales often reveal the most hopeful of truths, the true potential of being human. The moral of The Lion and the Mouse fable by Aesop is that an act of kindness, no matter how small, is never wasted. But also, and perhaps more importantly, that kindness and power are not, and should not be, incompatible.
The Lion and the Mouse
A Lion lay asleep in the forest, his great head resting on his paws. A timid little Mouse came upon him unexpectedly, and in her fright and haste to get away, ran across the Lion's nose. Roused from his nap, the Lion laid his huge paw angrily on the tiny creature to kill her.
"Spare me!" begged the poor Mouse. "Please let me go and some day I will surely repay you."
The Lion was much amused to think that a Mouse could ever help him. But he was generous and finally let the Mouse go.
Some days later, while stalking his prey in the forest, the Lion was caught in the toils of a hunter's net. Unable to free himself, he filled the forest with his angry roaring. The Mouse knew the voice and quickly found the Lion struggling in the net. Running to one of the great ropes that bound him, she gnawed it until it parted, and soon the Lion was free.
"You laughed when I said I would repay you," said the Mouse. "Now you see that even a Mouse can help a Lion."
A kindness is never wasted.
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