austraLasia #3276
30 August 2013 -- Did you hear the one about the two loonies? Strangely enough, this comes from Don Bosco!
"Two loonies, wrapped up in cloaks and trembling from the cold, entered a certain inn and asked the innkeeper to light a fire to warm them up. The innkeeper went over and lit a huge fire, then went off. Meanwhile one of the men got so close to the fire that had he been made of straw he would immediately have been incinerated. The other stood at the entrance to the room, pulled his hands out of his cloak and held them out to the fire to warm himself.
Meanwhile the one who was standing right up close to the fire shouted: "Curse the fire! It’s burning me!"
The one who was standing right back said: "Oh! I’m just as cold as I was before," and they called the innkeeper.
He came and asked both of them what kind of fire, what sort of wood it was if one said he was just about on fire while the other said he felt no warmth at all. And then, noticing that they weren’t quite right in the head, he said to them:
"The problem is not the fire, it’s you. If you back there would just take four steps further forward, you would be able to warm yourself, and if you here would just take two steps back you would not be so hot for sure."
They did as he said, then after warming themselves for a while they left, praising the fire, the wood, and the innkeeper’s advice.
The two loonies are an image of people who don’t know how to use things properly, thinking they are bad while instead they are excellent, and complain about them. It doesn’t matter how good something is if you don’t know how to use it. Riches are good: but they are bad in the hands of someone who is either extravagant, squanders them in vice and gluttony, or is greedy and keeps them locked up in a steel box".
Then there's this one:
A rough looking character goes into a bar and orders a drink.
The bartender says: "No way. I don't think you can pay for it."
The guy says, "You're right. I don't have any money, but if I show you something you haven't seen before, will you give me a drink?"
The bartender says, "Only if you don't offend the other customers."
"Deal!" says the rough looking character and reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a hamster. He puts the hamster on the bar and it runs to the end of the bar, across the room, up the piano, jumps on the keyboard and starts playing Gershwin songs. And the hamster is really good.
The bartender says, "You're right. I've never seen anything like that before. That hamster is truly good on the piano." The rough looking character downs the drink and asks the bartender for another.
"Money or another miracle else no drink", says the bartender. The rough looking character reaches into his coat again and pulls out a frog. He puts the frog on the bar, and the frog starts to sing. He has a marvellous voice and great pitch. A fine singer.
A stranger from the other end of the bar runs over and offers the rough looking character $300 for the frog. "It's a deal" he says, takes the three hundred and gives the stranger the frog. The stranger runs out of the bar. The bartender says: "Are you some kind of nut? You sold a singing frog for $300? It must have been worth millions. You must be crazy."
"Not so", says the rough looking character, "The hamster is also a ventriloquist."
Not sure what moral to draw from that one but if there is one, Don Bosco might have thought it worthy of his collection! That aside, he had to find a way to get the boys at the Oratory to begin reading. He was mad keen on reading, so long as the content was uplifting, carried a message... so he scavenged all kinds of stories and anecdotes from respectable authors, including his good friend Silvio Pellico, and put them together in a work called "Selected Short stories and anecdotes...".
It is yet another treasure from our Father and Founder, and whether or not you find any of the stories of value, you will quickly see from their length (very short) and content (a message and a moral in everyone) that here is the educator in action, no longer talking about how, but showing us how.
If you want a pdf version instead of the html, then here it is. An epub version is available under the title 'Short stories' in E-SDB
30 August 2013 -- Did you hear the one about the two loonies? Strangely enough, this comes from Don Bosco!
"Two loonies, wrapped up in cloaks and trembling from the cold, entered a certain inn and asked the innkeeper to light a fire to warm them up. The innkeeper went over and lit a huge fire, then went off. Meanwhile one of the men got so close to the fire that had he been made of straw he would immediately have been incinerated. The other stood at the entrance to the room, pulled his hands out of his cloak and held them out to the fire to warm himself.
Meanwhile the one who was standing right up close to the fire shouted: "Curse the fire! It’s burning me!"
The one who was standing right back said: "Oh! I’m just as cold as I was before," and they called the innkeeper.
He came and asked both of them what kind of fire, what sort of wood it was if one said he was just about on fire while the other said he felt no warmth at all. And then, noticing that they weren’t quite right in the head, he said to them:
"The problem is not the fire, it’s you. If you back there would just take four steps further forward, you would be able to warm yourself, and if you here would just take two steps back you would not be so hot for sure."
They did as he said, then after warming themselves for a while they left, praising the fire, the wood, and the innkeeper’s advice.
The two loonies are an image of people who don’t know how to use things properly, thinking they are bad while instead they are excellent, and complain about them. It doesn’t matter how good something is if you don’t know how to use it. Riches are good: but they are bad in the hands of someone who is either extravagant, squanders them in vice and gluttony, or is greedy and keeps them locked up in a steel box".
Then there's this one:
A rough looking character goes into a bar and orders a drink.
The bartender says: "No way. I don't think you can pay for it."
The guy says, "You're right. I don't have any money, but if I show you something you haven't seen before, will you give me a drink?"
The bartender says, "Only if you don't offend the other customers."
"Deal!" says the rough looking character and reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a hamster. He puts the hamster on the bar and it runs to the end of the bar, across the room, up the piano, jumps on the keyboard and starts playing Gershwin songs. And the hamster is really good.
The bartender says, "You're right. I've never seen anything like that before. That hamster is truly good on the piano." The rough looking character downs the drink and asks the bartender for another.
"Money or another miracle else no drink", says the bartender. The rough looking character reaches into his coat again and pulls out a frog. He puts the frog on the bar, and the frog starts to sing. He has a marvellous voice and great pitch. A fine singer.
A stranger from the other end of the bar runs over and offers the rough looking character $300 for the frog. "It's a deal" he says, takes the three hundred and gives the stranger the frog. The stranger runs out of the bar. The bartender says: "Are you some kind of nut? You sold a singing frog for $300? It must have been worth millions. You must be crazy."
"Not so", says the rough looking character, "The hamster is also a ventriloquist."
Not sure what moral to draw from that one but if there is one, Don Bosco might have thought it worthy of his collection! That aside, he had to find a way to get the boys at the Oratory to begin reading. He was mad keen on reading, so long as the content was uplifting, carried a message... so he scavenged all kinds of stories and anecdotes from respectable authors, including his good friend Silvio Pellico, and put them together in a work called "Selected Short stories and anecdotes...".
It is yet another treasure from our Father and Founder, and whether or not you find any of the stories of value, you will quickly see from their length (very short) and content (a message and a moral in everyone) that here is the educator in action, no longer talking about how, but showing us how.
If you want a pdf version instead of the html, then here it is. An epub version is available under the title 'Short stories' in E-SDB
