tale 49 a different role Written by Rainer: rainer.lehrer@yahoo.com Learn languages (via Skype): Rainer: + 36 20 549 52 97 or + 36 20 334 79 74

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A different role While walking through the forest, he came to a river. When he was younger, he just jumped, grabbed the branch hanging from the tree on the opposite side and swung over. When he was younger, he was famous for his achievements in the whole valley, had won many competitions in climbing, jumping and wrestling. However, he wasn’t young anymore. Had he noticed this fact? He had already experienced a loss of force, velocity and agility but he was sure he could still jump and grab that branch. He fixed his eyes on the branch to reach and jumped. However, he did not even come close to it and with a big splash fell into the water. When he climbed out totally wet, still on this side of the river, he hoped that no monkey had seen it. Back in the village some hours later and already dried up, where the monkeys were preparing for the great sports competition, he saw the youngsters getting ready for the sports event. They all bowed at him and asked him whether he would give them the honour of taking part in the games. Remembering the river  he only smiled. Then he went to the weaker ones to give them some advice. At the end of the day, the winner of the games was announced and our hero had the honour to crown him. Some weeks later, he went up the river to the foot of the mountain. He had been there many times and over the years had studied the white top of the mountains. He loved the sight of the snow covering the rocks. Normally, in spring, the river carried much more water and sometimes flooded some parts of the valley, and in summer, more rocks could be seen at the top. He concluded that the amount of water coming down in spring had something to do with the amount of snow covering the mountains in winter. Now, looking up at the mountains, he observed that not a single rock could be seen. It was as if even more snow than before had covered them. Therefore, he thought that much more water would be carried by the river that the floods would inundate a large part of the valley in spring. When he returned to his village, he informed the inhabitants about his observation. Some just laughed at him saying that he was getting old and being afraid of ghosts but others asked him for advice. For some weeks, he searched for a more elevated place in the valley and when he had found it, he told those who wanted to listen to him. Then one day, he took his goods and possessions and moved to the more elevated place. Of course, now, the way to the river was longer and water had to be carried up. Those staying on the lower place laughed at his group. Again and again, he went down to the other group to convince them to follow him but they wouldn’t. Some days later, it was getting warmer and the river slowly grew to a real stream flooding the lower parts of the valley. The water stopped not far from the new place but didn’t reach it. It was a horrible night with rain and strong winds. He sat into one of the boats they had carried up and paddled towards the former village place. When he arrived, there was not much left of it and some monkeys had managed to seek refuge in the higher trees. One by one, he rescued them with his small boat and carried them to the new village. However, some had drowned. Again, he was a most estimated member of his community, but it was a different role. Hey, you, elders! Don’t make a monkey out of yourselves! Age is about something different than youth and if you are honest, you must admit that today it’s much better than it was 50, 100, 500, 1000 or 2000 thousand years ago. You can only help the youth with your experience preventing them from moving towards authoritarian systems but instead trying to create something more democratic because the future belongs to the youth and hope that they won’t have to fight as much as we or our ancestors had to. Continue with tale 50!

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