Now See Where Meaness Gets You

Hello,
The following is a tale by The Brothers Grimm. I love myths and fairy tales for telling us the truth in an entertaining way. They don't just smugly plonk it down like the atheist and spoil everyones party. Oh no they tart it up in a nice tale by way of an anesthetic. Someone once told me that Oscar Wilde wrote children's stories to tell his sons that the world is a terrible place. Of course they told me this in an effort to convince me my hero was a monster. Naturally I was not even slightly convinced. Children should be told the truth in a manner that doesn't break them, to encourage them to postpone adulthood as long as possible. Adult life is pretty dreadful really apart from the sex and intoxicants. Anyway I've strayed from my point which is that stinginess is a sin and here is how the wonderful Brothers Grimm tell it like it is in 'The Ungrateful Son'


'Once a man was sitting with his wife before their front door. They had a roasted chicken which they were about to eat together. Then the man saw that his aged father was approaching, and he hastily took the chicken and hid it, for he did not want to share it with him. The old man came, had a drink, and went away. Now the son wanted to put the roasted chicken back onto the table, but when he reached for it, it had turned into a large toad, which jumped into his face and sat there and never went away again. If anyone tried to remove it, it looked venomously at him as though it would jump into his face, so that no one dared to touch it. And the ungrateful son was forced to feed the toad every day, or else it would eat from his face. And thus he went to and fro in the world without rest.'


A toad in the face! How just.

Cheerio