A Conundrum:

'Arriving doesn't make a stop'.
As a child I had this question , " Why do I have to ask you every time, God?" but so many answers to my prayers make me ask thus, " If you have answered me every time what am I to you, God? A question?" Arriving at some conclusions, be it answers to our some specific need or something philosophical, God must set us chasing ever on something else. It is true with the concept of God as with a lowly thing as a flower.
Every question has probably thousand answers that are as convincing to which we may as well settle. But one answer is all that we can take or pursue with vigor. Doesn't that explain our human dilemma?
benny

A Bermuda Triangle

The head of the family was an angel. So pure and highminded the Ancient of the Days called him one day and said,” Down to the earth you go!” He ordered,” this instant.”
Me- Righteous, the angel took the form of a Native Indian and before he could count the toes of his feet he had got a family and three children. What’s more he had Hurons for neighbors. Me-Righteous counselled Hurons how to plant corn and skin furs from otters; he taught them many useful things with which the tribe prospered. Naturally Me-Righteous become the patriarch. Everyday he taught his three sons: they were highminded, righteous and men of peace. One son taught the Hurons to trade and the second how to negotiate with those who were contrary. The third taught them to build settlements and manage lands. Under their guidance the tribe prospered. It was least expected but the French came to the scene and they had powerful muskets and technology that impressed the Hurons. They had to make peace with them in order to suvive. The Iroquois being envious of the Hurons instantly allied with the Dutch who also had firearms and lethal weapons.
Old Me-Righteous was old and by the time he woke up he found the whole area up in arms and blood was being shed wholesale. He called his three sons and faulted them for letting matter slide into blood feud.
“ How come you have failed me?” the old man asked in bitter tears.
“Oh father we shall answer you after you had answered the Great Spirit in the Blue Yonder,”replied the eldest son.
There is something mighty peculiar: We rear our children with the best of intentions and give them every advantage our moral sense is capable of. Yet we fail to stop the evil from coming in. A Bermuda triangle into which our ‘goodness’ disappears and none can be individually held responsible for.
benny

Truth and Beauty

6.
In his first week into the household of Iadmon Aesop was captivated by a marble statue that was set in a park. It shone here and there picked out of darkness by a full moon. He thought it must be that of Aphrodite in her perfection. His fancies were so aroused that he went next morning along that path to go to his work place. To his surprise he realized the statue was that of Medusa. Under that brash sunlight it was calculated to harrow any viewer. So masterly the sculptor had fashioned her form. On looking at it so many times since that initial shock, he realized his first impression under the moonlight was right after all. The horror of her face had its own beauty supplied by the skill of the unknown sculptor.
Remarkable that the sculptor could bring out a certain beauty in what may at superficial glance be seen an ugly subject! Aesop later on had ample opportunity to discuss Aesthetics with artists and sculptors. He would conclude what ordinary people thought of beauty was the freshness of youth. A mistaken notion. Such beauty what was present today and gone next day cannot sustain truth.
That truth of a sculptor’s art made even a horrible aspect of Medusa come alive. ‘Truth gets more mileage out of plain truth the seashells carry, despite these may have been trampled upon by wayfarer. To those with the seeing-eye these shells yield their secret’ so said a poet once and Aesop could understand.
“Gods of Olympus who made humans might see beauty in their wrinkles as well in that vitality shown in youth,” Aesop once spoke at the Babbler’s Club on his views of Aesthetics, ”But for us humans we need to train ourselves to look deeper. So some effort is needed.” Eyes are meant to look but a seeing-eye is yet another.
How an object fulfills in a way or performs in the way it is intended at all time has a beauty: It has character. ‘Humanity shown by man and woman in all circumstances must fit the purpose for which we are created.’ He had said on another occasion. Truth must be beauty indeed.
benny.
This is a selection from my book The Life of Aesop (www.lulu.com/content/344881)

Will The Real Aesop Stand Up?

PREFACE

Mr. Wolf finally took subscription with a cable T.V Company and had a flatscreen installed in his lair. Watching TV became a routine and an addiction. Once surfing channels with his remote he was struck by a talk show. A kid was waxing eloquent and all through the show he ridiculed wolves.
He asked: ”What can one do with a wolf who has become a couch-potato?”
He himself supplied the answer: ”You still got to skin him.” Watching how the lamb was getting all the laughs he fumed: ”Talking head, your wisecracks do not worry me so much as not knowing what you have done with the rest of your body.”

No marks for guessing the source of this story.
Who has not heard of Aesop? Or read his fables? Very little is known of his life and the present book, I hope, shall to some extent satisfy that lacuna.
Who was Aesop?
The answer to this, ah my readers, is to be found in my book The Life of Aesop. Happy reading!
benny

w-45d2

Has hate, I mean pure hate, won kingdoms? Not that I know of. I know of kingdoms lost because of blind hatred. Hitler might have come to power on the wave of hate but his Third Reich didn’t last for 1000 years. Barely thirteen years. If hate can only have so much staying power don’t be a sucker for it.
After September 11, 2001 we see a hate campaign hotting up in the Arab media. Some hot headed Imams also have been at it. In such circumstances a controversy over Danish cartoon can only be said to be distracting and totally uncalled for.
benny