When I was in school in France we were made to memorize Aesop's fables. These Greek fables had been adapted to the French language by a poet called Jean de La Fontaine. La Fontaine lived during the reign of Louis the XIV who brought France to it’s post-medieval zenith. La Fontaine used much material from ancient Greece and Asia for his writings. He transformed these prose and poetry into gentle political satires that held a mirror to the hierarchical society of his days. One such fable is one of a strong and mighty tall-standing oak having a discussion with the weak bending-to-every-wind reed in the river below it. The oak would jeer at the reed. “ Look at you!” he would say, “You bend at the slightest breeze. Now to the right, now to the left. How can you live this way?! Look at me strong and tall. Nothing moves me!” In life I have noticed that Someone always hears our proud boastings, especially when they done against the weak. As the wind heard the proud oak, it blew, and blew, and blew while the self-assured tree stood strong and firm. All the while, the reed bent lower and lower to the ground, to the point where he would even embrace the shape of the ground under it. The oak laughed and laughed at the reed’s weakness, mocking it for its apparent lack of strength till a sudden increase in the wind uprooted it. All the while, the bending reed was left unharmed. As the oak looked around with surprise, he remarked to the reed, “I am tall and strong, but you are small and slender, how did the wind knock me over but leave you untouched?” The reed responded, “The wind will blow and it can’t be stopped, but those who are proud and stubborn are unable to withstand its assault, however those who are humble and adaptable are able to continue to stand after the turmoil has passed.” Here is a great reminder. Life brings many challenges and we live in turbulent times; but those who seem to cope best aren’t the rigid, proud and dogmatic, but the malleable, humble and pragmatic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rus3yHVnfHk
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