Aesop’s Fables by Aesop - author of The Tortoise and The Hare https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-tortoise-and-hare-is-near-perfect.html and other famous fables - 9 out of 10

 

Aesop’s Fables by Aesop - author of The Tortoise and The Hare https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-tortoise-and-hare-is-near-perfect.html and other famous fables

 

9 out of 10

 

There may be two ways at looking at these fables – maybe it is the same for everything else, unless we have a multitude of angles, in which case there is a myriad of ways to look at the same thing – to be a merit finder, or a fault finder, guess what Positive Psychology suggests, we need to be sartisfizers, not maximizers

 

The latter instruction comes out of the pages of a classic of Psychology, The Paradox of Choice https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-paradox-of-choice-by-barry-schartz.html by Barry Schwartz, who explains how we are overwhelmed by too many offers, they have studied this in shops and elsewhere…

There are two kinds of people, those who are satisfied with very good options, and they are called Satisfizers, and the others, who always want perfection, and therefore are unhappy – when they buy a car, or something else, they see somebody else who has gotten something better, or paid less for the same thing…

 

Ergo, we have to be Satisfizers, not Maximizers – but to return to the two aspects of the Fables, on the one hand, there are some that are amusing, and appear to offer valuable advice, such as the Fox and the Grapes, wherein the animal decides that the grapes are sour, when she sees she cannot reach them, a wise thought

We may see some of these stories as silly, The Tortoise and the Hare, wherein the former wins in a running competition, against…The Hare, the reaction upon hearing such news, would be ‘are you crazy’, or you mean this as a joke, but if we look at the parable, the significance would be that we need to ‘festina lente’

 

To use our wisdom, and then we can win against the most unlikely odds, there is also the attitude that the hare has taken, in a recent retelling, for a horror movie no less, he is taking a nap, and when he wakes, it is too late…however, this being a bloody movie, the hare goes to the house of the tortoise and kills all

Some of these fables have become proverbs, others are famous sayings – such as the one I quote at the end of this note – I have written a standard chapter for the finish, part laziness, but mostly because I expect some feedback, support for the project explained, and received no reaction, and then there are things I believe in

One is connected to these lines ‘Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ aka the mountains have knocked each other, and produced a ridiculous mouse, listed as a fable of Aesop, but also a good description of the notes, and what is happening in the world, America is struggling to produce a ridiculous clown- Orange Jesus aka Trump

 

Proverbs are not infinitely wise, though they are so frequently mentioned, and used as examples of glorious Sagesse – the luminary who was considered the greatest philosopher in these parts, Constantin Noica, has written that these great examples of knowledge are in fact wrong, and there are some examples in his books https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/02/povestiri-despre-om-de-constantin-noica.html

‘Appearances deceive’ this is one of the most famous – or should I say infamous – proverbs, proved wrong in another classic of psychology, blink – The Power of Thinking Without Thinking https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/blink-power-of-thinking-without.html by Malcolm Gladwell, where we find The Thin Slicing Theory

 

There is also the study made with a good number of Fortune 500 companies, where the CEOs were very tall, at about 190 centimeters, and they had about one third of the highest positions, while in the population at large, they represent just around 3%, in other words they were ten times more numerous there…

This can be explained only by the fact that members of the board who decide to hire these men (they are mostly men, and white) look at what they see at first sight – those appearances that deceive, according to the fables, the proverbs – even if those fellows do have impressive activities, experience, so do those who are shorter

 

 There are examples in blink with mistakes made, but otherwise, appearances are a good information on the man or woman who come before us, if they look destitute, they are not a prince in beggars’ clothes, Cinderella will not spring out of some rags, which is not to say that we have to make judgments concerning the intellect, spirit of strangers, based on what they wear, there is the fact that they say some words and then we know

According To Mark is a wonderful novel https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/02/according-to-mark-by-penelope-lively.html by Penelope Lively, in which she talks about the author as god, he or she can change what characters do or don’t, but there is also this idea that we are separated from the others by fortune, position…

 

Only one important difference is given by the number of books one has read, versus another, just like it happens in the book, where the male personage has ‘the content of a medium sized library in a small town’, ahead of the woman he loves, or maybe is just attracted to, and that is evident when we say a few words

At the sauna downtown, there are multiple examples of lack of education, and how appearances are mostly useful in avoiding the ruffians, at one point, somebody used some oil menthe for the hammam, and one villain said that ‘the mouth will freeze, during oral sex’, this is what he had to say in front of strangers, there is no doubt that that is a fool

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”