The wisdom of the old
The old man agreed. They signed a contract and the foxhunter taught the young man all the secrets of fox- hunting.
With the money he received, he bought a beautiful house in the south, where the climate was so mild that he didn’t have to worry about collecting firewood through the whole winter.
In the spring, though, he felt nostalgic for his old village and decided to go back and see his friends.
When he arrived, he bumped into the young man who had paid him a fortune for his secrets.
“So,” the old hunter asked, “how was the hunting season?” “I didn’t catch a single fox.” The old man was surprised and confused. He asked the young man, “Didn’t you follow my advice?”
With eyes downcast, the young man replied, “Well, to be honest, no, I didn’t. I thought your methods were out of date and I ended up discovering a better way to hunt foxes myself.”
Be sure to keep the box: An old man had worked all his life. When he retired, he bought a farm for his son to manage and decided to spend the rest of his days sitting on the veranda of the big house.
His son worked for three years, but then began to grow resentful.
“My father doesn’t do a thing,” he said to his friends. “He spends all his time staring out at the garden, while I slave away in order to feed him.”
One day, he resolved to put an end to this unfair situation. He built a large wooden box and went over to the veranda.
“Pa, would you mind getting into this box?” he asked. His father obeyed.
His son placed the box in the back of his truck and drove to the edge of a cliff. Just as he was preparing to push the box over, he heard his father speak.
“Son, throw me over the edge if you must, but be sure to keep the box. You’re setting an example here, and your children will, without a doubt, need the box for you.”
The blackbird comes to a decision: An old blackbird found a piece of bread and flew off with it. When the younger birds saw this, they pursued him to attack.
Confronted by imminent battle, the blackbird dropped the piece of bread into the mouth of a snake, thinking to himself, “When you’re old, you see things differently. I lost a meal, it’s true, but I can always find another piece of bread tomorrow. However, if I had hung on to it, I would have started a war in the skies; the winner would become the object of envy, the others would gang up on him, hatred would fill the hearts of birds and it could all go on for years. That is the wisdom of old age: knowing how to exchange immediate victories for lasting conquests.”
© Translated by Michelle Artimez