Fabulous Renewal

The observant reader will have noticed a lengthy sabbatical by Wordsmith as he once again dabbled in the time-consuming practice of Family Genealogy. Although the research in this area is never done, it is time to put away the charts for a while. So here he is again at the bench hammering away at another artifact.

Reverting to the First Person, I must report that I have recently rediscovered Aesop and his marvellous fables. It must be acknowledged that many of the 650+ fables credited to Aesop through the good work of his publicists were in existence long before the birth of this philosophical character, and many more were added over the Centuries. It is convenient to subsume all under his name, an Aesopean Genre. Several of these fables used to be found in School Readers for various grades, back in a time when there was a much greater emphasis upon good behaviour and character building in official textbooks.

I have just become reacquainted with one of these, the meeting between Androcles and the Lion. The moral of this fable was "Gratitude is the sign of noble souls". I was never sure whether this referred to Androcles or the Lion. I think we were advised that it would always be best to be kind to all animals. In our walks through the Australian bush, I have constantly been on the alert for lions in trouble, but have so far not discovered any. The Australian animals I have come across have generally scuttled quickly away before I could render any assistance to them. Having a noble soul and being unable to find a recipient for your kindness can be very frustrating. Maybe one of the other Fables will give me more scope for character-building.