Father Sez

Credit: Google 

This was a story I read so many years ago. It’s a story which is so simple yet the powerful lessons it tells us has stuck in my mind all these while. 

For those of you who may not have heard this story, it goes like this.  

A man and his son were taking a bag of salt on a donkey. They were going to the market to sell the salt and make some money. As most fathers would do, he had allowed his son to ride the donkey along the way. 

They passed a village, where the villagers gave tough looks at the boy and commented that a strong lad like him should not be allowing his father to walk. So the son got down and walked, whilst the father got to ride the donkey. 

As they passed the next village, the villagers commented that the father was a cruel man to make his son walk while he rode the donkey. So the father and son both got on top and rode the donkey. 

At the next village, the villagers commented that the father and son were really cruel and had no feelings, to make the donkey suffer. So the father and the son got down and carried the donkey and the bag of salt. 

As they crossed a bridge, the donkey struggled a little and fell into the river together with the bag of salt. The father and his son ended up with no donkey, no salt and no money.  

The moral of this story is that we cannot please everyone. For everyone who says that we must do this or that, we’ll find an equivalent number saying that we should not do this and that.  

Trying to please everyone would surely end up in pleasing no one. 

This is a powerful lesson. A lesson that we would all do well by remembering and practicing. This does not mean that we should ignore everyone and just do as we please. There are norms of behaviour as well as rules that we should follow. The practical experiences of others in our position are also available for us to learn from.     

When all has been considered, it is finally up to us to make our decisions and live with it. All we have to remember is that at the end of the day, only God makes 100% right decisions. We are just human!