Sometimes it takes a half a life time to discover that most of our tiffs and fights are not worth the trouble. Most of these don’t accomplish anything. Both combatants think they are right and few are inclined to give ground. In the long run our misery far outweighs the importance of most issues. The ancients already understood this quite well. Aesop wrote his story of the Bald Man and the Fly to illustrate that point. Here is my own version which I have set to rhyme.
THE BALD MAN AND THE FLY
Morus was an ill tempered guy.
Who learned a lesson from a fly.
Though impossible that might seem
It was not inspired by a dream.
Always upset by the slightest thing
He’d even spasm when his wife did sing.
True. She couldn’t carry a tune.
Still no reason for conjugal ruin.
He would rant and rave to no end.
His wife in turn would take her stand.
He’d huff and puff like big bad wolf
As if that, would anything solve.
One day Morus again did puff.
Then stormed out of the house in a huff.
On the step he sat, all alone.
Pitied himself, fumed and groaned.
‘What’s that, buzzing around my head?
Scat, or I’ll smack. And you’ll be splat.
Nervy thing. Now you want to sting?
Smack! Ouch! That made my ears ring.
He had smacked himself on the head..
He was bald without a speck of fat.
It stung both hand and bald head.
The fly still buzzed and was not dead.
The fly enjoyed the sweaty dome
Where nothing stopped to freely roam.
Again, again, he landed there
To sting the dome that was so bare.
Furiously Morus smacked some more
Until both hand and head were sore.
He suddenly became a wiser man.
“I’m worse off than I first began.”
“ You only hurt yourself, that’s clear
When much inclined to interfere.
Dislikes are better to ignore
Then wage great battle with constant war.”
VP Feb. 15, 2008 All rights reserved
Inspired by Aesop’s Fable “The Bald Man and the Fly”
Tags: humor, life's lessons, married life, timeless truth, wisdom
