In a World Full of Fly’s (assignment)

When I think back to the time when I was a student in the public school system in New York, I can vividly remember the use of fables and parables as a method of teaching life lessons. A big part of my upbringing was stories like the Tortoise and the Hare, The Boy who Cried Wolf, and the Goose that laid the Golden Eggs. To this very day I often can hear the words of a fable when I am confronted with a difficult moral situation and more times than not I determine my action by the advice of Aesop.  I feel that in our modern age the council of this Greek slave turned storyteller might be more pertinent than it has been in a long time in the words of the fable “The Bald Man and the Fly”.

“THERE was once a Bald Man who sat down after work on a hot summer’s day. A Fly came up and kept buzzing about his bald pate, and stinging him from time to time. The Man aimed a blow at his little enemy, but—whack—his palm came on his head instead; again the Fly tormented him, but this time the Man was wiser and said “YOU WILL ONLY INJURE YOURSELF IF YOU TAKE NOTICE OF DESPICABLE ENEMIES.”

            This story teaches us that we should restrain our actions when we are confronted by annoying but otherwise harmless enemies, because in the long run the ultimate harm may be to us. This lesson in the value of restraint can have countless applications that run the range from an argument with individual neighbor with annoying habits to geopolitical conflicts involving third world nations. In either case I do not feel that Aesop is advocating appeasement or impotent cowardice, I think this fable suggests the need to use proportional action based on the threat of the enemy.  In the fable it might not have been necessary for the old man to attempt to squash the fly, instead he might have simply shielded his head with a hat or attempted to drive the fly away toward bait in another location.

            In our lives as in our world we may be tempted to lose our patience with an opponent and act out of frustration to eliminate our discomfort through excessive means. Some may feel that our countries current military adventures abroad are an example of this problem and it is possible that they may be correct. If we were in a position of leadership what kind of actions could we have taken to prevent or at least soften our current position? Aesop might have suggested that we use restrictive political means to isolate the Taliban and Al Qaeda instead of entering into military conflict. It is always difficult to project the best solution to a complex problem and to be assured of success. If we are willing to heed the advice of Aesop and practice restraint when possible we may find ourselves in a more harmonious world situation and save ourselves some lumps in the bargain.