Slice of Life: It's not a fabled life

Those of you who read my columns know I love to read. As a child I loved the library. I still recall the white wire chairs with the pink, orange and yellow seats in the children’s section and the location of my favorite books. Although if I were to return, I’m sure a remodel has changed all that!

As children we were read many stories. Mostly fables or fairy tales of one sort or another, always with a lesson to be learned. Lately I find myself musing over some of the stories we were read and thinking of how pertinent they are in society today.

For instance, The Emperor’s New Clothes by Hans Christian Anderson. For those of you who don’t recall the story, an emperor is tricked into paying con artists for “invisible clothing that only the most intelligent of people can see.” As the con artists sew imaginary fashions for the emperor, the advisors surrounding him pretend they see the fabulous garments. For though they truly see nothing, they don’t want to appear dimwitted. It is only when a small boy cries out to the emperor that he has no clothes on that the emperor fully realizes his folly. Often these days I find myself, on hearing of another frivolous policy put into place or a social training demanded, thinking t, “Oh my, the emperor has no clothes on…”

Perhaps you might be a volunteer in a local nonprofit, church or social club and hear ideas of things to do. It sounds great but it seems like the same ten people end up doing all the work, every time. You might relate to the story of The Little Red Hen by Mary Mapes Dodge. In The Little Red Hen, the hen goes out to gather wheat to make bread. As she progresses through her tasks she asks, “Who will help me?” And no one helps, until the end when she asks, “Who will help me eat this bread I have baked from this wheat?” And all the hens cluck, “We will, We will!”

News outlets and social media have become so confusing, who do we believe anymore for news? Fake News? Fox News? CNN? Facebook? Perhaps the day of Chicken Little is upon us. This folk tale is about a chicken who sees something fall from the sky and determines the world is coming to an end. As she runs about the farmyard crying out, “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!,” she creates alarm throughout her community and stirs the other animals up. I know I’ve had cause to say to my husband a time or two, “Oh goodness, the sky is falling!”

Perhaps now is a good time to revisit the fables of our youth and think on the lessons we learned then. As I listen to the news and hear about wars throughout Europe, as I read about the current genocide of Christians happening by followers of the Islamic faith in Iraq and Syria, as I pay inflated prices in the grocery store or at the pump filling my gas tank, I wonder if the emperor has any clothes on? Is the sky falling?

Currently we have a confusing issue in Montana for many landowners regarding the CSKT Water Compact. It’s hard to know who to trust and what to believe when our ELECTED representatives tucked it out of sight into a 5,593 page appropriations bill in 2020. I wonder how many representatives read that bill and took time to understand it? I know how long it is taking me to read the 1,125 pages of War and Peace with my book group. Perhaps we need a law that requires bills to be no more than 12 pages. And only one subject matter or issue per bill. Why the CSKT was attached to a COVID bill makes no sense to me. It makes me wonder if our political system is more like another Aesop fable, The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing. In this tale a wolf finds an old sheep skin to disguise himself so he can get around the shepherd to kill a sheep.

Perhaps we are just plain immune to thinking about all these things and paying attention. We are bombarded on all sides with media and fear mongering day in and day out. Perhaps we have become immune like the villagers were in the story by Aesop of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Due to boredom, a shepherd boy called out several times falsely to the villagers for help. When the wolf finally came for him, he had no response to his cries. But what price do we pay for lack of vigilance when the wolf finally passes the water compact, or diminishes the second amendment or abolishes the first amendment freedom of religion and no one is really looking?

What is the value of fables in the lives of children? Are they valid lessons for adults and applicable now? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Perhaps you could join me for a pot of stone soup. Just let me know if you’d like to come and I’ll let you know what vegetables or meats to bring to add to my pot of water and a stone.

Chelle is a recovering social worker who currently works as a licensed massage therapist at Cherry Creek Myotherapy. She moved to Montana with her husband David and two pups, Lucas and Turner, where they seek “the quiet life” amid new adventures.