I'm thinking things would be a better if we could all take personal responsibility.
But how do you help people achieve that?
In Aesop's fables, there's the one about the hard working ant and the carefree grasshopper. The ant works and works and works all through Spring, Summer and Fall. In the winter, she has enough food to last her family through the Winter.
The grasshopper spends his time playing and relaxing and enjoying himself all through Spring, Summer and Fall. So, when Winter rolls in, he has nothing.
He goes to the ant to beg for food. She tells him, "If you don't work in the Summer, you can't expect to eat in the Winter." (Maybe she's a Republican?)
Cold?
I would say, "YES!" if the grasshopper showed up in a wheelchair, or with 15 children. But an able bodied grasshopper? I don't think so. He was lazy. It would be a different story if he spent all summer looking for work, but found none. Or if he lived in a country with famine....or had a mental illness....or worked in the finance industry.
How do you teach a grasshopper the value of personal responsibility?
2 comments:
teach them when they are young the values found in the manufactures handbook on life, and by example explaining why and how the choices you make are made. that way we eliminate future grasshoppers because our tiny ones won't feel entitled to what they are willing to work for
i agree. for some people it's just to darn late. ack!
my one real pet peeve is the sense of self-entitlement that seems to be everywhere.
the young ones...that is the key, but who will bring that to them?
as a side note, when i was baking this weekend and the girls didn't want to help and i said are you going to pull a little red hen on me and want to eat it later?
i love your ant/grasshopper tale!
Post a Comment