Simple Wisdom is Still Wisdom...If You Listen to It

We absolutely love complicated things. There seems to be a tendency of people to value things that are complicated or expensive over things that are cheap and simple. Amazingly, more people will pay thousands of dollars to hear a New Age guru spout words of "wisdom" than will pay $5 to hear the same words from another guru. Without getting all psychology-ish, we tend to value things more that cost us something. The more it costs us (time, effort, money, emotional involvement, etc.), the more we value it. If it cost us nothing, then it must be worth nothing.

But does such thinking hurt us or help us? Well, sometimes it's valuable. But not always. Sometimes the wisdom that is cheap is extremely valuable. This little tale from Poland (there's also a good Jewish version of it that's nearly identical) teaches us not only the value of wisdom, but the value in LISTENING to it.

A rich man was walking in his garden one day, cheerful and happy, and suddenly noticed a small bird caught in a net. He took hold of the bird and was very surprised when it started talking to him. "Dear man, let me go," the bird said. "I am too small to eat, I cannot sing, and I am not pretty to look at. But I will tell you three pieces of wisdom in exchange for my freedom." The rich man told the bird that if the teachings were good, he would let it go. So the bird told him, "Do not grieve over things that have already happened. Do not strive for that which is unattainable. Do not believe in what you know to be impossible." The rich man agreed that these teachings were good and let the bird go.

The bird flew into a nearby tree and then began laughing. When the rich man asked why, the bird said it was because he had won his freedom so easily and that if the rich man would have held on to him, he would now be the richest man in the world. "How is that?" asked the rich man. "Because in my body I have a diamond the size of a hen's egg," the bird replied. The rich man stood still for a long moment, then smiled. "You think that you are happy because I have given you your freedom," he began, "but summer will soon be over and the cold winter will begin. It will be hard for you to find food and a place to sleep. But come to my home and I will keep you warm and well fed." At this the bird laughed even harder. When the rich man asked him why, the bird replied: "You gave me my freedom because of the teachings I gave you, and now you are so foolish as to not take them to heart. You should not grieve over things that have past, yet you already regret giving me my freedom. You should not seek that which you cannot have, yet you want me to give up my freedom to live in a prison. And you should not believe that which you know is impossible, yet you believe in my body is a diamond the size of a hen's egg yet I am only half the size of a hen's egg!" And with those last words, the little bird flew away.

Now, this story in and of itself is a valuable lesson to all of us. The bird's three pieces of wisdom are really wise. But going just a bit beyond the obvious gives us the overall point of the story, which is that wisdom, even given cheaply, must be adhered to in order to be of any value. And it need not come from some high and mighty place or person. It COULD come from there, but it could also come from any other source or person. But the real value of wisdom is two-fold. First, what does it cost you to follow it? Does it save you from something (emotional, mental, physical)? And second, you have to listen to it for it to do you any good.

Have a question, problem, thought, or just a comment? Want to know what fairy tales say about some other topic? Send it to me and I'll post it here!

Or, you can check out my ebook The Wisdom of Folktales Lessons on How to Live Happily Ever After available here, at BarnesandNoble.com, at Amazon.com, and at Smashwords.com! It's stories from around the world with real world applications to help you live that happy life!