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Title: Stories From the Old Attic

Author: Robert Harris

Posting Date: July 11, 2008 [EBook #240] Release Date: April, 1995

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORIES FROM THE OLD ATTIC ***

Produced by Robert Harris

STORIES FROM THE OLD ATTIC

Robert Harris

1992

Copyright 1992 Robert Harris

Permission is granted to share this book as an electronic text
All other rights, include hardcopy publication, are reserved

To Mom

Contents:

  The Second Greatest Commandment
  A Good Horse and a Better
  It's Nut Valuable
  Stewardship
  The Man Who Believed in Miracles
  A Fish Story
  Man
  Love
  Indecision
  The Limit
  How Sir Reginald Helped the King
  How the Noble Percival Won the Fair Arissa
  Truth Carved in Stone
  How Sir Philo Married a Beautiful Princess Instead of the Woman He Loved
  Serendipity
  A Tale Revealing the Wisdom of Being a Cork on the River of Life
  The Art of Truth
  Matthew 18:3
  The Boy and the Vulture
  Three Flat Tires
  The History of Professor De Laix
  How the Humans Finally Learned to Like Themselves
  The Caterpillar and the Bee
  The Wise One
  On the Heroic Suffering of Mankind
  The Quest
  Life
  Discernment
  It Depends on How You Look at It: Eight Vignettes on Perspective
  The Strange Adventure
  In Defeat There Is Victory
  The Oppressed Girl
  Two Conversations on Direction
  Semiotics Strikes Out
  Seeing is Believing
  A Traditional Story
  The Day Creativity Met the Linear Dragon
  The Wall and the Bridge
  The Wish
  Several One Way Conversations
  How the King Learned about Love
  The Fly and the Elephant
  The Man Who Talked Backwards
  The Clue
  An Analogy

The Second Greatest Commandment

A man was out shoveling the excess gravel off his driveway and into the graveled road that ran by his house. A neighbor happened to be walking by just as the man tossed a shovel full down the road the opposite way the man used to drive in and out. "I see you aren't messing up the part of the road you use," sneered the neighbor.

A few minutes later another neighbor happened by and saw the man toss a shovel full of gravel down the other part of the road. "I see you are fixing only the part of the road you use, and not the part others must use," sneered the second neighbor.

The shoveler stood still with a shovel full of gravel as the second man left. Now unsure of what to do with it that would be agreeable to his neighbors, he decided simply to dump it out onto his driveway on the very spot whence he had scooped it up. Just as he did so, a third neighbor happened to be walking by. "I see you are stealing gravel from the road for your driveway," sneered the third man. "People like you are what's wrong with this country."

At this point the homeowner put his shovel away and sat down with his pipe to contemplate these occurrences. Pretty soon a neighbor from further down the street drove by and saw the man sitting down enjoying his pipe. "If you weren't so lazy, you'd shovel some of that gravel off your driveway and back onto the road where it belongs," the driver sneered as he drove away, spinning his tires and scattering gravel in every direction.

A Good Horse and a Better

A man once came upon a lad about midday skipping stones across a pond. "Hello, young man," he said, approaching. "What brings you here on a school day?"

"I wrote a poem yesterday which was the best in class, and the teacher said I could play today while the other children wrote more poems."

"Well, then, you are to be congratulated. Yours is certainly a deed of distinction. And as a reward," he added, settling himself on a tree stump, "let me tell you a story about two horses."

"Oh, yes, do," the youth said eagerly, sitting down at the man's feet.

"The first horse lived in Arabia, and he was beautiful and strong. He had never lost a race. And he was shrewd. He would run just hard enough to pull away from the other horses in the race, and then he would let up and trot, or even walk, across the finish line, to the great embarrassment and humiliation of all the other horses."

"He was clearly a superior animal," the young poet interjected.

"Yes, he was," agreed the man. "Now the other horse lived in Macedonia, and he, too, was strong and noble. He had, however, lost one race, the first race of his life; and some say he always remembered that when he ran."

"How grating to the heart it must be to lose so early and have a blight on one's reputation," mused the young man.

"But this horse always won every other race. And unlike our first horse, when this Macedonian horse ran and knew he had beaten the other horses, instead of letting up he redoubled his efforts and ran even harder—as hard as he could—for he now ran not against the fortuitous competitors with whom he began the race, but against his own heart: against all horses past and all horses future, against every horse in Macedonia and every one in Arabia, and also against the ideal horse with a pace so frighteningly fast that few can conceive its possibility. And even more than this, he ran toward the perfection of excellence itself. And when he crossed the finish line, as happy as he was to win, he secretly lamented that his opponents had not been fast enough to threaten him and push him onward."

"Even though he lost once," the lad remarked after a short silence, "perhaps this horse was as good as the Arabian."

"Perhaps so, my child," said the man, with a smile. "Perhaps so."

It's Nut Valuable

Once upon a time a wise and thoughtful craftsman made a new electric adding machine. It was very complex with many gears and levers and wheels, and it did amazing things, always adding up the numbers correctly. So the craftsman sold it to a businessman for many thousands of dollars. All the parts inside the new adding machine felt good about being so valuable. They worked hard and happily all day, and often talked about how useful they were to the businessman.

But one day a spring noticed a little nut just sitting on the end of a shaft. The spring pulled at the lever he was attached to and pointed. Soon the whole works knew. "You lazy little nut," said a spinning gear, "why don't you get to work?"

"But I am working," said the nut. "Holding on is my job."

"That's stupid," yelled a cam. "I don't believe our maker put you here. You just sneaked