“It won’t do any good,” said the other.
“Of course it will do good. Is an umbrella not made to protect us from rain?"
“True. But my umbrella is old and full of holes."
“Goodness! Then why did you bring it along?"
“I didn’t think it would rain."
__________________________
I love stories of fools and tricksters and foolish-wise sages/animals/elders and so on. And nowhere is there to be found a population as rich in fools as the legendary city of Chelm. I read several Chelm stories to Taliesen last night and had us both laughing and, of course, cancelling out any relaxing bedtime story effect. I found myself laughing at some familiar tales all over again as i listened to myself read them and also listened through Taliesen’s experience. I was delighted and amazed at how quickly Taliesen picked up on the cleverness of the humour. I know many an adult who would not be so quick.
Once again i was impressed with the way that wisdom can be encoded in stories of comic misunderstanding. And this story, in particular, struck me as carrying in it something important to understand better about our current moment of climate crisis. But i’ll leave off carrying that thought any further here and let the story work in the way that stories work.
image: Vyacheslav Beda
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