I present a fable to you today about a town that lost its soul. What is a fable, you might ask? The most famous would be Aesop’s Fables!
Definition of Fable
“Fable is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral lesson (a “moral”), which may at the end be added explicitly as a concise maxim or saying.”
My Fable
In a not too distant land and time, a town of empathetic people took care of each other. They didn’t agree on everything—religion, politics, means of earning a living—but they embraced tolerance and love. This town’s devotion to their neighbors went above and beyond their differences. The elders in this town helped raise Maria and give her the values she holds dear today.
Their work ethics of this town spoke loudly of the ideals that formed this country. The depression had shaped these values, and they passed those same ideas down to the next generation, Maria’s parents, but something happened. The next generation stopped believing in the deep morals and beliefs the previous generation had upheld. The town had changed!
Along with the erosion of their work ethics, this town’s deep allegiance to each other faltered. An outsider, a villain, came to town and divided this little town right down the middle. An alien stirring caused harm to lifelong friendships. Maria’s mom’s dear lifelong friend chose the opposite side and their relationship of decades ended for a time but rekindled before her friend’s death. Who had destroyed this town’s unity? An outsider, but many in the town joined him.
So Maria’s mom had to seek allegiance with some who conspired to isolate her from her mainstream friends. Yes, she disagreed with them on this new division in her beloved town, but was she duped? Because Maria’s dad had passed away, her mom felt isolated and alone. These people befriended her and filled her days. They spoke often of the ills of the “other” group, keeping her mom focused on the division.
Because Maria lived thousands of miles away, she felt gratitude to these people for befriending her mom. But the town’s division became more and more, and by the time her mom died, Maria believed them to be friends, supporters, like-minded people.
But always Maria felt apprehensive. So did her three sisters and three brothers! They believed in the town they grew up, not realizing it had decayed and lost its soul! As time evolved after her mom’s death, her younger brother and Maria moved closer to their hometown, and she saw something she had never seen before. Was her mom’s isolation self-imposed or generated to keep her alone and needy?
On a trip back to visit her beloved town, Maria’s ten-year-old daughter was viciously attacked by a dog owned by the people who had helped her mom. If her daughter had fallen in the attack, she would have died on the spot. Immediately, they blamed Maria and her daughter for the attack, saying her daughter trespassed in their yard. Her daughter ended up with a horrible twenty inch scar on her mangled leg and a noticeable limp do to irreparable nerve damage. Maria’s daughter died a two months later due to complications with the nerve damage. Maria’s world came tumbling down, so she pressed criminal charges. Her town she loved turned its back on her!
The stupidity of the local police of her hometown took over! They served the owner with the criminal charges on Christmas Eve. This added to the hatred this town felt for Maria and this whole incident. Then through a calamity of errors on the police’s part, they dropped the charges. Maria was left with no recourse for the loss of her daughter!
And on top of that, her brother who moved back closer was refused business by someone in their town because of the way Maria treated the owners! The way Maria treated the owners! Really???
The Moral of this Fable:
A person’s heritage is not linked to a town or a place!
Can a town lose it soul? Yes, it can when it turns its back on one of its own! Throughout this whole nightmare, the owners of the dog never called to see how Maria or her daughter were—not one phone call. No one in the village called, texted or emailed. NO ONE! Not one person called to console Maria when her only daughter died, to offer their condolences. Not one! The town lost its soul and in her eyes died that day!
Sampling of Fables
Fables teach us a truth and these famous ones from Aesop’s Fables are amazing:
Finally,
Writing a fable can be a fascinating teaching tool. Try it! You might like it!
UPDATE ON BOOK #2 OF MY POETRY SERIES
Time Measured Out!: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry is in the hands of my editor, so it’s a waiting game right now. Next for me is to get a cover designed by 100Covers.com. I love the process of self-publishing!
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