Filipo really enjoyed helping his father in the flour mill. He led the donkey up to the millstone, tied it securely, fixed over its head a stick, at the end of which he suspended the proverbial carrot.
After that, he only had to give the donkey a couple of shoves to start it moving.
From morning to evening the animal circled slowly following the carrot, while Filipo daydreamed, leaning up against bags of flour. His father Ernesto carried the sheaves of corn to the barn and spent time checking the wheels of the huge mill.
The young boy's donkey was very reliable, and day after day it plodded fruitlessly after the carrot that it would never get.
One evening when the exhausted donkey had finished its last circle and Filipo was helping his father arrange the bags of flour, he said thoughtfully:
"Look at this foolish donkey, going around and around day in and day out in the heat, without food or drink, trying to reach a carrot that it has no hope of getting. I will never be like that."
Filipo's father dropped his last sack, put his hands on his hips and eyed his son,
"Do you think we are so different from the donkey? We work equally hard from morning until night. Then we return home, eat some food and go to bed where we dream that with a little luck, life will be a little easier tomorrow; that fortune will smile on us and that we won't have to work anymore.
But in the morning with our aching backs and our tired hands, we understand just how far away the carrot is, and just how long it will be before we reach it."
..........................................
Is our society any different from the theme of this short story? We chase success relentlessly, to fulfil our desires for wealth and comfort.
The carrot?
The wonderful advertisements, the fabulous shop windows and the salesmen encouraging us to consume.
Wouldn't it be worth minimizing our ambitions and desires so that we could have the possibility of satisfying them - and actually GET the carrot?
(again from Club Positif)
