A king had a scary dream. He dreamt that all his teeth fell out, one after the other.
Very upset about this, he summoned his dream interpreter. The man listened with great concern to the king’s account of his dream and said to him,“Your Majesty, I have bad news for you. Just as you lost all your teeth, you will lose all of your family, one after the other.”
This sad interpretation kindled the king’s rage. The dream interpreter, who had nothing better to say, was thrown in jail at the king’s command.
Then the king summoned a different dream interpreter. This one heard him tell the dream and then said, “Your Majesty, I have good news for you. You will become older than all of your family. You will outlive them all.”
The king rejoiced and rewarded the man richly for saying this.
But the courtiers were very surprised. “Your words were really no different from your unfortunate predecessors. But why was he punished, while you received a reward?” they asked. The lucky dream interpreter replied, “You are right. We both interpreted the dream in the same way.
But it is not a question of what you say, but also how you say it.”
Lot’s to learn from this little old tale.
Only six more days and this awful election circus will be over. We have heard a lot, we have seen a lot, and it left many of us feeling dirty and filthy, it left many of us speechless and sad.
I hope we will find our way back to our values. Most of us were raised differently; we were raised to respect one another.
Today it seems we hear, but we don’t listen to each other.
as to the wisdom of not yelling at each other…civility is a key to any healthy democracy. no matter what needs to be said, it can be said politely.
Some of my friends who blog political stuff are getting too stressed to continue. It’s the constant lies, distractions, deceit. I had no idea it could be this bad.
I was born and raised in Europe, came here to the U.S. in the 80’s after I had just married Mr. America. 🙂
Much, too much in this election reminds at the time before WWII and I am in absolute disbelief. I feel heartbroken over it.
Great perspective!! And thank goodness, or maybe not , that this election will be over soon. Part of me feels like we’ve all gone insane. I miss the days of civility.
It’s surprising how many of us feel the same way.
As a culture it really is sad where we’ve currently landed. I only hope it gets better.
So interesting, it is all in how we look at things!
Very clever follow up to your last post on snarky remarks.
Thank you Bernadette!
So true and great story!
Yes, it’s almost over and we can take a breath. A great parable!