Aesop's Fable: The Trees and The Axe
Plus a free downloadable bookmark!
The Trees and The Axe
Translation by George Fyler Townsend via Project Gutenberg
A man came into a forest and asked the Trees to provide him a handle for his axe. The Trees consented to his request and gave him a young ash-tree. No sooner had the man fitted a new handle to his axe from it, than he began to use it and quickly felled with his strokes the noblest giants of the forest. An old oak, lamenting when too late the destruction of his companions, said to a neighboring cedar, “The first step has lost us all. If we had not given up the rights of the ash, we might yet have retained our own privileges and have stood for ages.”
Mr. Townsend does not list a moral with this translation even though, according to Scholarly Journal Wikipedia (ahem…), he’s the one who started this tradition of adding morals to Aesop’s Fables in the first place! Anyway, here’s my moral:
Be careful who you trust. Never give ill-hearted people the means to harm you.
…more on that in the Epilogue.
5 Things I’ve Been Into Lately
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. I am obsessed with this book. It’s a bit of a will-they-won’t-they romance between two young video game developers with lots of deep-cut industry references and DRAMA.
This Crispy Marinated Tofu Recipe from Omnivore’s Cookbook. Y’ALL. It’s incredible. If you’re feeling lazy like I was, you can skip the breading part and just pan fry the tofu after you marinate it, then top it off with leftover marinade. We served it on a bed of cauliflower rice and it was so filling!
Ancient History Fangirl Podcast. Season 10 just started last week and the first episode is about biblical plagues!! It’s a very conversational look at ancient history, often examined through an intersectional feminist lens.
Evening walks. Since it’s hot AF all day here in Austin, we’ll wait until 8:30-ish to walk Baloo—right when the sun begins to set. It’s lovely to see the sky in pinks and oranges!
I got some Caran D’Ache Pablo colored pencils and they are TheBomb.com. The colors are super bright and smooth… highly recommend if you love coloring!
Freebie Zone
New freebie: a bookmark! If you’ve been marking your page with doggie ears or random little scraps of paper (like I was…), but you’d like something a bit nicer, then please enjoy this freebie! And if you’re feeling really fancy, you can laminate it with clear packing tape like I did, lol.
Epilogue
Well, how did you like that fable? This one makes me think a lot about my youth, wanting to trust everyone I met, then getting burned pretty badly by fake friends. It’s a hard lesson, but I think it’s one that many of us learn as we age: keep the people you can trust really close to you and allow new friends the chance to build trust slowly over time. It’s ok to keep parts of yourself guarded as you get to know people! And if they prove they aren’t trustworthy… it’s also ok to take steps back from those friendships. You are a beautiful being who deserves love and respect, and you are worth protecting.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the rest of your week :) As always, reply to this email if you want to say hi, otherwise see you next time!
Ciao,
Liz
