What Do Aesop's Fables Mean to You?
Aesop had a lot of great stories to teach morals and they have been a part of my life for quite some time. Don't get me wrong, I do not stand on any sort of moral high ground when with others. I try to keep my judgments to myself or the lucky few that are close enough to me to encounter the entertaining being of Jon.
I read a book when I was in my early teens titled Everything I Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Folgrum that is a lot like Aesop's Fables in the way that most of the information should seem obvious. Common sense about how to act and what to do and not to do when it comes to being a good human being.
"because the fables do not fit the model of philosophy that would be developed later by thinkers like Plato and Aristotle and their successors, they are often disregarded by philosophers; and because they are regarded as having been written for children and slaves, they are often not taken seriously as a source of information about practical ethics in ancient Greece."
I feel like we have gone astray over the many years since Aesop wrote these fables just about 2,800 years ago. I am sure that over time the use of a moral code was more prominent in society and perhaps we need to bring that back. We don't need an in-depth look at the philosophy of how things came to be, we just need some simple lessons.
Aesop was born in 620 BCE and died 574 BCE at the age of 56 and he was the authority of the moral code. Hopefully, we can recapture the spirit.
This is what Wikipedia has to say about Aesop:
"Scattered details of Aesop's life can be found in ancient sources, including Aristotle, Herodotus, and Plutarch. An ancient literary work called The Aesop Romance tells an episodic, probably a highly fictional version of his life, including the traditional description of him as a strikingly ugly slave (δοῦλος) who by his cleverness acquires freedom and becomes an adviser to kings and city-states. Older spellings of his name have included Esop(e) and Isope. Depictions of Aesop in popular culture over the last 2500 years have included many works of art and his appearance as a character in numerous books, films, plays, and television programs."
Doing My Part
A new story will be posted every day until they are all out. The Library of Congress has 147 fables on their page that I am narrating. My YouTube Playlist is available for anyone to enjoy and share, plus additional content will be available on my Facebook page. I aim to reach people young and old. Remind them that Aesop had some great ideas centuries ago and life could be more pleasant or at least karma will make more sense if we are all reminded of the simple stories that shape our moral beings.
The process:
Story source: http://www.read.gov/aesop/
All photos in videos from the source above along with the story in the videos. All background music provided by iMovie and narration by Jon Wilkins. Some stories contain sound effects and small samples with sources added to video credits.
