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A Fable a Day — Day Five — Aesop’s “The Kid and the Wolf”
“Standing securely on a high rock, a kid noticed a wolf passing below and began to taunt him and shower him with abuse. The wolf merely stopped to reply, “Coward! Don’t think that you can annoy me. As far as I’m concerned, it’s not you who’s taunting me, but the place on which you’re standing!”
Interestingly enough, my copy of Aesop’s Fables did not contain a summarized moral for this fable (as those are typically the final line of the fable I’m sharing in my article), so I’m left open to discuss the short fable on terms I view from its message. How exciting!
One message stands out to me the most: those who are in high positions of power have a confidence without foundation beyond the position itself.
The child should know better, clearly. Wolves are not to be trifled with. Because he was able to stand in a position above the wolf, where he was untouched and unable to be touched, his confidence boasted itself in a way that he would not have summoned had he crossed paths with the wolf upon the high rock or down on a forest path. Therefore, his taunting came from an empty place, with a false sense of confidence driving his verbal abuse.
How little good it does to be in power without the building blocks to actually place you in a greater position than another.
