Fables

Yesterday I discovered how easy it is to get credit in the UK, despite the ‘credit crunch’. I need a new credit card, as the one I currently have is being transferred from Visa to American Express and I don’t particularly want an American Express card. I found a cash back card that means I will get money back on all my purchases, filled out an online application form and within seconds of filling out the form was notified that my application had been successful and I would be sent the card within the next few days. That was certainly much easier than I had expected, particularly as I thought it might be loads of hassle to get a new card, but nope, it was as simple as filling out a form.

I am reading four different books at the moment. I will add the other books to my sidebar at some point, but one of them is Aesop’s Fables. I have wanted to read them for ages and they are just very short and easy to read fables that are meant to be lessons about human nature. I was a bit concerned that they might be hard going but actually they are very accessible, so if you are looking for something to read then maybe give them a go. Anyway, here is “The Eagle and the Fox”:

An eagle and a fox, having become friends, decided to live near one another and be neighbors. They believed that this proximity would strengthen their friendship. So the eagle flew up and established herself on a very high branch of a tree, where she made her nest. And the fox, creeping about among the bushes which were at the foot of the same tree, made her den there, depositing her babies right beneath the eagle.

But, one day when the fox was out looking for food, the eagle, who was very short of food too, swooped down to the bushes and took the fox cubs up to her nest and feasted on them with her own young.

When the fox returned, she was less distressed at the death of her little ones than she was driven mad by frustration at the impossibility of ever effectively avenging herself. For she, a land animal, could never hope to pursue a winged bird. She had no option but to content herself, in her powerlessness and feebleness, with cursing her enemy from afar.

Now it was not long afterwards that the eagle did actually receive her punishment for her crime against her friend.

Some men were sacrificing a goat in the countryside and the eagle swooped down on the altar, carrying off some burning entrails, which she took up to her nest. A strong wind arose which blew the fire from the burning entrails into some old straw that was in the nest. The eaglets were singed and, as they were not yet able to fly, when they leaped from the nest they fell to the ground. The fox rushed up and devoured them all in front of the eagle’s eyes.

This story shows that if you betray friendship, you may evade the vengeance of those whom you wrong if they are weak, but ultimately you cannot escape the vengeance of heaven.

I have to say that I don’t really think life is as simplistic as that or that vengeance is really a desirable answer to life’s turmoils, but it’s interesting to get an ancient take on life. Maybe, as they say, there’s nothing new under the sun.

I saw that the pier at Weston Super Mare burned down yesterday. G and I stopped off there on the way to Cornwall a few weeks ago and were not that enamored with the place, but we did only go into the town and not to the sea front. I sent an e-mail to check if G had been involved in torching the place but got an outright denial in response. I still have my suspicions though.