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 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 you get to work?"
"But I am working," said the nut. "Holding on is my job."
"That's stupid," yelled a cam. "I believe our maker put
you here. You just sneaked in to steal some of our glory. Why you get out?"
"Well," said the nut, "sure our maker knew what he was
doing, and that I do serve a purpose. I hold on as tightly as I
can." But all the machinery began to squeal and abuse the nut so
violently that he felt very sad and began to doubt himself.
"Maybe I am useless," he thought. He appealed to the shaft he was
threaded onto.
"Look, kid," the shaft told him, "I've got plenty of other
parts holding on to me. I shouldn't have to support you, too."
So finally the little nut decided to unscrew himself and go
away. He dropped off the shaft and fell through a hole in the
bottom of the machine. "Good riddance," said the motor.
"Yeah, good riddance," all the other parts agreed.
Rather quickly the nut was forgotten and things went on as they
had for awhile. But in a few hours, the shaft began to feel funny.
At first he began to vibrate. Then he started sliding and slipping.
He called for help to the other parts attached to him, but they
could do nothing. Presently the shaft fell completely out of his
mounting hole, causing many levers and gears and cams to slip out
of alignment and crash against each other, and forcing the whole
machine to grind to a halt with an awful noise. The motor tried
his best to keep things going--he tried so hard that he bent many
of the parts--and then as he tried even harder, he burned himself
out. "This is all the fault of that little nut," the ruined parts
all agreed.
"give ya three bucks for it," said the junk man to the
office manager.
Stewardship
A wise man approached three young men standing around idly.
"Here is a coin worth a hundred dollars," the wise man said to the
first youth. "What should I do with it?"
"Give it to me," he said at once.
"Rather than reward such selfishness and greed," responded the
wise man, "it would be better to throw the money into the sea." And
with this, the wise man threw the coin into the water. "Now," he
said to the second youth, "here is another coin. What should I do
with it?"
The second youth, feeling shrewd, answered, "Throw it into the sea."
But the wise man said, "That would be ...
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