I'm not an Elton John fan but I heard this song today for the first time in many years. Pretty good.
When my dad returned from India a few weeks ago, he gave the boy a book called 7 in One Moral Stories. As the name implies, there are 7 short stories, each with a moral at the end. On the front cover it had a strange cartoon of a man in a pilgrim-type outfit talking angrily to animals. The boy wanted D to read one of the stories before bed last night. They thumb through the pages and decide on one called When the Tortoise Wanted to Fly. The story goes like this: The tortoise is envious of his eagle friend's ability to fly. The tortoise asks his friend the eagle to teach him to fly. The eagle is surprised to hear this impossible wish and tries to tell his friend that tortoises cannot fly. The tortoise is insistent and finally the eagle agrees. He takes the tortoise in his claws and starts flying. As they reach great heights, the eagle says "Beware my friend, I am loosing my grip; try to fly." He lets go of the tortoise who comes crashing down into a rock at high speeds and breaks into a million pieces. "He died because of his foolish wish. MORAL: Do not wish the impossible."
WHAT THE??? D said the boy had a confused look on his face. I guess he's used to American the-sky's-the-limit type fairy tales. D was laughing so hard when he came downstairs. He asked what type of crazy ass bedtime stories my parents read to me when I was little. We both had a good laugh over it.
When my dad returned from India a few weeks ago, he gave the boy a book called 7 in One Moral Stories. As the name implies, there are 7 short stories, each with a moral at the end. On the front cover it had a strange cartoon of a man in a pilgrim-type outfit talking angrily to animals. The boy wanted D to read one of the stories before bed last night. They thumb through the pages and decide on one called When the Tortoise Wanted to Fly. The story goes like this: The tortoise is envious of his eagle friend's ability to fly. The tortoise asks his friend the eagle to teach him to fly. The eagle is surprised to hear this impossible wish and tries to tell his friend that tortoises cannot fly. The tortoise is insistent and finally the eagle agrees. He takes the tortoise in his claws and starts flying. As they reach great heights, the eagle says "Beware my friend, I am loosing my grip; try to fly." He lets go of the tortoise who comes crashing down into a rock at high speeds and breaks into a million pieces. "He died because of his foolish wish. MORAL: Do not wish the impossible."
WHAT THE??? D said the boy had a confused look on his face. I guess he's used to American the-sky's-the-limit type fairy tales. D was laughing so hard when he came downstairs. He asked what type of crazy ass bedtime stories my parents read to me when I was little. We both had a good laugh over it.
posted by Mint Chutney at 9:44 AM
Mint Chutney
Chicago, United States
Wife, mother, corporate peon.
2 Comments:
Yeah... some of them are pretty crazy... I remember this one - about the monkey that tells a croc that it has left its heart on a tree on the other shore - that I decided to make into a puppet show for 3rd graders (when I was in Philly, 7th grade). A couple of them cried, mortified, when they heard that the monkey was living without a heart. Totally freaked some of the kids out and all that !!!
That's good old Indian fatalism for you. We are taught to fall in line, never do wrong and all those things when we are young. :)) I was never an overt rebel in my childhood and adolescence, but I think I am one of the biggest rebels in my entire dynasty. Comingg from a staunch Hindu brahmin family, I think I am the first one to have commited all the seven deadly sins and added to the list. :))
In any case, Indian culture is all about not trying the new stuff... SIGH...
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