Good morning, and welcome once again to Sunday Griot! I’m very glad to see you here safe and dry.
Today’s story is a short one, and not the one I had hoped to tell today; but then they say that life is what happens to you while you’re making other plans. So here is is, a story of a donkey and an elephant.
“Hello, friend,” the donkey said as the elephant approached. “How are you this fine day?”
The elephant snorted and perhaps lifted its trunk just a bit as it continued down the path. “Can’t talk to the likes of you,” it said as it got closer to the donkey. “I have important work to do.”
“Really!” the donkey exclaimed. “What kind of important work would that be?”
“Well, if you must know, I’m off to the mouth of the river. The levee has failed, the city there is under water, and I am taking the rajah there to tell the people that help is on its way. Now move aside!”
The donkey had to scramble to avoid being trampled by the elephant as it marched along. By the time the donkey got itself and the cart turned around again, the elephant was rapidly advancing into the distance.
The donkey sighed and resumed its journey as well.
As fate would have it, a week or so later the donkey found itself at the city at the mouth of the river. The effects of the flood were still visible, but the people there were working hard to clean up and dry out so they could rebuild. They had also put their animals to work, and the donkey was amazed to see the elephant who had passed him on the road there as well. But if it had not been for the great notch in its ear, the donkey would never have recognized it. The howdah and fancy trappings were gone, replaced by a great harness made of rope, and the elephant was hard at work moving logs and other heavy material.
“Well, friend,” the donkey called out, “I’m certainly surprised to see you here. What happened to you?”
The elephant looked up, then lowered its head. “I arrived here and the rajah told the people that help was on its way. However, it seems that the people had been promised help one too many times, and help had never arrived, so in their anger they tore down the howdah and put me to work.” But before the elephant could tell the gruesme details of what had happened to the rajah and his guards, its new master spurred it on and it went back to its labors.
Be kind to those you meet on your way up, because you may well meet them again on your way down.
As I said up above, this is not the story I had hoped to tell today. In fact, until late last night I wasn’t sure what story I was going to tell. I wasn’t sure I was going to tell any story at all, to be honest.
So I asked the members of the C&J Cafe for some advice, and bless their little hearts, they came through. One wanted a story similar to this; another said a story of courage or kindness in the face of tragedy would be welcome. And one said that right now, she really wanted to hear a story. I guess that’s the kid in all of us that makes stories such an important part of our lives.
So I found two stories out on the Net last night that sounded like they’d fit the bill. This one vents a little of the anger I’m sure most of us are feeling right now; next week, unless I change my mind yet again, I have a story of courage in the face of certain death I think many of us may have heard, but it bears repeating.
Thank you for stopping by; please do what you can to help. As always, cheers to all of you.
My wish would be that the people would also harness the rajah and his guards to wagons and hold them responsible for to colleecting and burying the all the dead. When this task was finished, their job would be to haul all animal and human waste products away, until sanitary facilities could be rebuilt. When this was accomplished , I’d have them spending the rest of their lives in hard labor in the fields, tending the crops for all, for no pay beyond food and housing.
Sorry. I can find no charity in my soul this morning, for the rajah types. I just want them to have to experience all the suffering that they cause..and then ignore.
By not telling you what happened to the rajah and his retinue you get to supply that part of the ending yourself, and it can easily be the worst thing inmaginable.
I’m not sure which is worse, the fate I imagined for him, or the one you came up with.
Thanks for stopping by!
Omir my friend, you are nothing but pure magic ; )
bless you, and as always, you make my week, by starting Sunday with your griot…
peace be with you always….
I’m glad to see you here. You’re in Georgia, right? I’m sure you have a different take on the tragedy in Louisiana if only because you are so close to it down there. I know my take on hurricanes was a lot different back in the 80s when I was in Austin and one would come our direction once in a while (although we never got as much excitement as the people in Galveston and Corpus Christi did).
Have a good week, my friend!