The Unnoticed wealth Within (Lessons from an Ass)

The ass is a beast of burden that Aesop frequently uses to teach lessons. This one strikes me as important, and I believe my  take on this story may have not been the original lesson, but I am sure that it will help many of those that take the time to read.

In my tribe one of the first things that we strive to do is to get people to start learning not only their peoples history, but we push them to learn about their family history. Our goal in doing this is to help them develop a pride for what their personal family's history adds to the total mosaic of African and world history. Many of us, I believe, feel that our family has not added to the timeline of world events. We believe that our personal family's history should be shunned and put to the side because it is not important. That is the farthest we can get from the truth. Our family’s history is what made us, and if we would take the time to look at some of the great things some of our personal Ancestors did we would be amazed. We discount the greatness of our family line because of indoctrination we have received. Especially those of African descent that could be labeled ADOS. We are made to feel ashamed of the fact that our people were enslaved, and in that we devalue them. We believe they did nothing noteworthy, because they are not in the history books, or museums. We don’t talk about them and like the ass in this story we have fantasies about who and what we come from. In that way of thinking we miss out on an important cheat code of life. We miss out on many lessons that could help us move to “The Best Life”. Chief of all those lessons is the idea reflected in the story called “acres of diamonds” by Russell  H. Conwell. I won’t tell the whole story but the idea is that a man looking for wealth sold his farm, only to find out that the wealth he was seeking was right up under the land that he once owned. How many of us are doing the same thing? We are trading in our history for mythology that does not serve us. 

We strive to escape the facts, and because we are trying to escape we miss out on the jewels that

were left for us. Our Ancestors, even though they were submerged in the pressure cooker of life, developed methods that they used to overcome, and we can learn from these lessons and take our lives from where they are to where we want to be, but we have to stop play acting. We have to mature to a point where we understand the situations that surrounded our Ancestors and get the MESSage and leave the MESS.

Unfortunately the mule (ass) did not pick up on this lesson. When he was hit with the reality of life he began to downgrade his lineage, like many of us do. Not realizing (I know this is going to sound crazy) the greatness of an ass. Asses are not bred nor were ever bred for racing. They were bred for their strength and endurance. So as long as this ass continues to compare his life to that of a racing horse he will be depressed. Hopefully yall are getting the lesson that I am trying to get you. 

Here is the folktale:

“A mule, frolicsome from lack of work and from too much corn, galloped about in a very extravagant manner, and said to himself: “My father surely was a high-mettled racer, and I am his own child in speed and spirit.” On the next day, being driven a long journey, and feeling very wearied, he exclaimed in a disconsolate tone: “I must have made a mistake; my father, after all, could have been only an ass.”

When we are wasting time trying to fit into the world as something that we are not we often miss the wealth that our life and the lives of our Ancsetors have left for us. Stop selling your heritage, and lineage to seek something that you already have. Stop disrespecting your Ancestors, by not acknowledging what they went through. Begin to accept yourself for who you are, and more importantly for who your ancestors are and move into “The Best life”!

Listen to "FFGF- The Mule" on Spreaker.