tale 22 think
before acting
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Think before acting!
Once upon a time, there was a big valley with two
empires and a large river in the middle served as border for them. On one
side of the water, there were the monkeys believing in the banana god and on
the other side the believers of the coconut god. For a long time, they had
been in war with each other, then both exhausted, war activity ended. The
ancestors in both camps still remembered the fighting and told their
progenies frightening stories about their former enemies. Therefore, when
they saw the other on the opposite shore, they screamed and shouted at them
and swore revenge for alleged grievances. Some even threw stones, spears or
fired their arrows, but the river was just too large so that the projectiles
always landed somewhere in the middle of the river without causing any harm.
In these cases, those on the other side used to laugh loudly, “you could
never kill me. Come over and you will get what you deserve!”
The monkey is an inquisitive being and after many
generations, there were some young monkeys, who built small boats and paddled
over to the other side. Of course, they didn’t tell their elders about it
because they knew that elders hadn’t forgotten the very old feud.
Nevertheless, after a certain time, the elders
discovered that their grandsons and granddaughters wore new clothes and
jewellery that had not been known before. First, the elders forbade their
youngsters to wear them, but without much success. Then, they created laws
against it so that the youngsters only wore the new fashion when the elders
were not there.
Of course, the elders felt that their influence
on their grandchildren weakened but they thought it was undermined by the
enemy from the other side of the river. Wilder and wilder, the elders called
for revenge of the old and new alleged grievances and at the end for war.
Many of the young monkeys on both sides of the
river knew that all this propaganda against the people of the other side were
just pure nonsense but they didn’t dare to contradict their elders.
A general assembly of all the people was convened
to announce the decision of the Council of Elders. “We have considered all
possibilities and we, the elders, came to the conclusion that there is no
other way than war against our ancient enemy, the people of the empire on the
other side of the water. We must preserve and defend our culture, our
people.” Many of the young monkeys were very sad and hung their heads because
they knew that on the other side of the river, the young monkeys there were
as sad as they were. “Tomorrow, we will manufacture weapons and boats in
order to begin the war within ten days.”
Everybody in the assembly was very silent.
Suddenly, a young female monkey stood up, “I
don’t want that war. The monkeys on the other side of the river are my
friends.”
Everybody looked at the female monkey, the
youngers watched her with admiration and fear for her, the elders observed
her with suspicion and hate.
“Are you a spy?” asked the speaker of the elders.
“Do you call those dogs on the other side of the river your friends?” “Yes,
the monkeys on the other side of the river are my friends,” replied the
female monkey emphatically. “Don’t you remember who gave you birth who
nourished and clothed you? Don’t you have any respect for the tradition of your
ancestor? For our culture? For our values? For us, the older generation?” the
elder seemed exhausted. He had not expected anything like that. “How dare you
to contradict us?” he gasped, “you eat our bananas and coconuts. Don’t you
feel ashamed? If you don’t change your mind you can’t be member of our tribe
anymore.”
Quietly but audible for everybody in the
assembly, she said, “I love my parents and my ancestors. I have friends
amongst this tribe and amongst the other tribe. I don’t want my friends to
fight against each other in a senseless war.”
The elder nearly fell of the pulpit, “you are not
our child anymore. Go! Leave our assembly! You have two hours to leave our
lands. Maybe, you will find refuge in the camp of our enemies.”
The young female monkey had tears in her eyes but
slowly she turned and slowly went away. Shortly after that, the assembly was
dissolved.
The female went to her house to get her few
possessions in order to leave her homeland.
Her parents, brothers and sisters were very sad
and tried to convince her to change her mind, “where do you want to go? What
do you want to do?” “If my tribe forces me to choose between them and my
friends, they can’t be a good tribe,” she replied.
At the end of the settlement, there were members
of the war party spitting at her and calling her traitor.
She went up into the mountains and found a large
cave where she settled down. At night, she lit a fire and watched the stars.
First, she felt very lonely but then, she observed a fire somewhere on the
opposite side of the valley on the other side of the river. She knew that
somebody from the other tribe had made the same decision as her.
During the day, she could see her tribe building
a big ship in order to ferry across the river but the construction went very
slowly as shipbuilding had not been exercised for a long time.
She had been in the mountains for two nights,
when she heard some rustle in between the trees. She listened carefully and
suddenly the saw one of her girlfriends coming out of the forest.
This female informed her about everything what
was happening in the settlement, that the ship was not really ready for
shipping, that the warriors would probably drown in the river and that most
of the young monkeys in the tribe had the same opinion as her. “We must
contact our friends at the other side of the river and inform them about
what’s happening here.”
So, they went down to the river a bit away from
the settlement, took out their small boats hidden in the reeds and paddled
over to the other side. In the middle of the water, they suddenly saw another
boat coming towards them. First, they thought that those were warriors from
the other tribe, but then, they recognized their friends. They all were happy
to meet.
They agreed that the elders of both sides were a
bit crazy, that they wanted to make war across the water but were not even
able to build a normal ship to cross the river. Furthermore, they consented
that something had to be done to save the elders and their warriors from drowning.
For the next days, while the elders and warriors
were working on their useless ship on both sides of the river, the young
rebels pulled a liana with many tree trunks hanging on it across the water.
Then, the big day arrived; Elders and warriors on
both sides of the river got on their ships to ferry across the water. Drums
were beaten, horns were blown and shouts of war could be heard.
If it hadn’t been so sad, one would have laughed.
The ships had not even reached the middle of the river when both vehicles
capsized and the elders and their warriors were in danger of drowning. The
fast-flowing water carried them to the liana with tree trunks.
Quickly, the young rebels of both sides came with
their small boats and rescued the wet monkeys one by one to the secure shore.
There, female monkeys lit fires to prepare banana
soup and coconut tea to warm the sodden heroes of the failed war.
Still for many generations to come, the young
rebels could not convince the elders to live in peace with the other tribe on
the other side of the river.
But one day, the young monkeys built a bridge
……….
The End!
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Samstag, 14. März 2020
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