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Macro Mondays 19/03/18 theme Once Upon A Time
For this theme I choose a Tibetan story from a book of Tibetan Folk Tales, by A.L. Shelton, [1925]
www.sacred-texts.com/asia/tft/tft04.htm
If you are a parable unto yourself--there exists no evil.
Tibetan Proverb.
The Wise Bat
A LONG time ago, a very long time ago, when men and animals spoke to each other and understood the languages of one another, there lived a very powerful king. He lived far off in a corner of the world and alone ruled all the animals and men in his jurisdiction. Around his grounds and palace were great forests and in these forests many birds and animals lived. Every one seemed happy, except the king's wife, and she said that so many birds singing at the same time made such frightful discord that it worried her. One day she asked the king to call them all in and cut off their bills so they couldn't sing any more.
"All right," the king said. "We will do that in a few days."
Now, hanging under the eaves of the palace, close to the queen's room, was a little bat, and though he seemed to be asleep, he heard and understood everything the queen had said. He said to himself, "This is very bad indeed. I wonder what I can do to help all the birds."
The next day the king sent letters by runners into every corner of the kingdom, telling all the birds that by the third day at noon--and it mustn't be forgotten, so put this word down in the center of their hearts--that all of them were to assemble at the palace.
The bat heard the order, but because he was very wise and understood everything he sat very still thinking and thinking about what the queen had said and didn't go to the king's audience on the third day, but waited until the fourth. When he entered, the king said angrily:
"What do you mean by coming on the fourth day when I ordered every one to be here on the third day!" Oh, he was very angry indeed.
The bat replied, "All these birds have no business and can come whenever the king calls, but I have many affairs to look after. My father worked and I too must work. My duty is to keep the death rate from ever exceeding what it should be, in order to govern the sex question, by keeping the men and women of equal numbers."
The king, much surprised, said, "I never heard of all this business before. How does it come that you can do this?"
The bat answered, "I have to keep the day and night equal as well."
The king, more surprised, asked, "How do you do that? You must be a very busy and powerful subject to attend to all these matters. Please explain how you do it."
"Well," the bat replied, "when the nights are short I take a little off the morning, and when the nights are long I take a little off the evening and so keep the day and night equal. Besides, the people don't die fast enough. I have to make the lame and the blind to die at the proper time in order to keep the birth and death rate in proportion. Then sometimes there are more men than women, and some of these men say, 'Yes, yes,' to everything a woman asks them to do and think they must do everything a woman says. These men I just turn into women and so keep the sexes even."
The king understood very well what the bat meant, but didn't allow him to know it. He was very angry with himself because he had agreed to do so quickly what the queen had asked, and thought perhaps the bat might change him into a woman.
"I am not a good king," he thought, "when I listen to a woman's words and yield so easily, and I am terribly ashamed to have given this order. I'll just not do what my wife asks, but send these birds all back home and not cut off their bills."
So he called the birds all to him and said, "Heretofore, men haven't known how to mete out punishment and laws for you, but now I am going to make the Cuckoo your king, and what I called you up to-day for is this: I wanted to ask your King and the prime minister, the Hoopoe, to rule wisely, judge justly, and not oppress the people. If big or little come to you in a law-suit you must judge rightly between them and not favor either rich or poor. Now, you may all return to your homes."
But the king in his heart was still angry at the bat because he hadn't obeyed him and came the fourth day instead of the third, and to show him he was the ruler and to be instantly obeyed he gave him a light spanking for his disobedience and then turned him loose.
Wise Bros along Interstate 70 in Callaway County Missouri by Notley Hawkins. Taken with a Sony ILCE-7RM2 camera with a Sony FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS lens at Æ’/8.0 with a 1/40 second exposure at ISO 100. Processed with Adobe Lightroom CC.
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©Notley Hawkins
One of my Blue Jays visiting the bird feeder. They are such characters. They sqwauk if I don't bring their morning offering of peanuts soon enough, sqwauk at each other and fight and watch me from the trees. They are a regular bunch of comedians, very entertaining.
To all our Friends:
We will enjoy these Christmas days spend with our Wildbunch... and with Alex
who is feeling a bit more recovered from his second chemo that will be wonderful.
We can go for a nice walk, and then snuggle on the sofa and cherish the moment..
I'll try to visit you all, the next coming days and admire all your wonderful pictures...
And for now our message is:
" From home to home, and heart to heart, from one place to another
The warmth and joy of Christmas, brings us closer to each other...."
Saskia & Ronald
Goofy Alex Sam Ozzy and Little Miss Pebbles
A Monkey, or better... a Barbar Macaque, is looking at his surroundings. Tons of people have gathered again alongside the walls that border his grounds. A couple of young boys are out and about, yelling and screaming like they just dont care. The monkey sees them, takes a bite from his apple and just keeps sitting there. One of the boys yelles at him, saying things like "Hey, stupid monkey, jump for me!"
But the Monkey wont budge. He just keeps calm and stares at them. The boys are starting to jump in anger and trow twigs and pebbles in his general direction. Non of them hit their mark.
"That damned monekey doesnt do anything!" They yell with red cheecks and mean looking eyes.
After a while, the boys leave with anger and frustration in their hearts... But the Monkey... well... He made them jump without even uttering one, single, word... and takes another bite from his apple with bliss in his heart.
So... who's the stupid monkey now?
😜
“It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves" .... François de La Rochefoucauld
With thanks to….
Owl ~ Wouter de Bruijn
Clouds ~ Fractal Artist
~ Expore ~ #108 ~ Feb 20th, 2009 ~
Garden sculpture of an owl. The owl is the mascot of Temple University, where I went to med school with Hippocrates.
Day 156 of my 366 Project
The 'Metheringham Gallery'! The second weekend of ECML diversions over the Joint GN/GE line. 43313 and 43309 approach Metheringham with the 1F18 London Kings Cross to York on 07 Mar 15.
This is the Harbor Freight Tools hardware store located at 129 Ridgeview Road located in the Ridgeview Shopping Center in Wise, VA. It opened in part of the former Kmart in fall 2016; interestingly, in order to open this store, the old garden shop structure was taken down.
A wise old owl lived in an oak
The more he saw the less he spoke.
The less he spoke the more he heard...
Why can't we all be like that wise old bird?
Whenever I see owls, I think of this fun quote. This owl was difficult to spot he was so quiet and still hiding behind the branches of the tree. I had to give it my best effort. Hope you like my peek-a-boo shot.
This is the bulletin cover from our " Open Up and Say Ah" series at Four Corners Church.
It is our quest each time we create artwork for a new series to do something we haven't before and this is a perfect example. This cover is truly the advantage of having creative collaboration. We had come up with and shot a series of photos for the cover (see an example HERE) but Wiseacre had this idea swimming in his head. We had talked about it in brainstorming but dismissed it as too gruesome.
He did this image as an experiment but as the staff and I looked at it more, it embodied exactly what we wanted to say. We were about to move into a series on the book of James and the dangers of the mouth...capable of great good and evil. On this week we are looking what wisdom is...when do we hold our tongue...when do we speak.
Yes...this is grotesque. Yes...it is dark. But I can't take my eyes off of it and I hope you can't either. I think literary critic Gilbert Muller on Flannery O'Connor explains the rationale behind this cover best :
"...the grotesque does not function gratuitously, but in order to reveal underlying and essentially theological concepts."