Stories From The Old Attic | Page 3

Vignettes
on Perspective The Strange Adventure In Defeat There Is Victory The
Oppressed Girl Two Conversations on Direction Semiotics Strikes Out
Seeing is Believing A Traditional Story The Day Creativity Met the

Linear Dragon The Wall and the Bridge The Wish Several One Way
Conversations How the King Learned about Love The Fly and the
Elephant The Man Who Talked Backwards The Clue An Analogy

The Second Greatest Commandment A man was out shoveling the
excess gravel off his driveway and into the graveled road that ran by his
house. A neighbor happened to be walking by just as the man tossed a
shovel full down the road the opposite way the man used to drive in
and out. "I see you aren't messing up the part of the road you use,"
sneered the neighbor.
A few minutes later another neighbor happened by and saw the man
toss a shovel full of gravel down the other part of the road. "I see you
are fixing only the part of the road you use, and not the part others must
use," sneered the second neighbor.
The shoveler stood still with a shovel full of gravel as the second man
left. Now unsure of what to do with it that would be agreeable to his
neighbors, he decided simply to dump it out onto his driveway on the
very spot whence he had scooped it up. Just as he did so, a third
neighbor happened to be walking by. "I see you are stealing gravel
from the road for your driveway," sneered the third man. "People like
you are what's wrong with this country."
At this point the homeowner put his shovel away and sat down with his
pipe to contemplate these occurrences. Pretty soon a neighbor from
further down the street drove by and saw the man sitting down enjoying
his pipe. "If you weren't so lazy, you'd shovel some of that gravel off
your driveway and back onto the road where it belongs," the driver
sneered as he drove away, spinning his tires and scattering gravel in
every direction.

A Good Horse and a Better
A man once came upon a lad about midday skipping stones across a

pond. "Hello, young man," he said, approaching. "What brings you
here on a school day?"
"I wrote a poem yesterday which was the best in class, and the teacher
said I could play today while the other children wrote more poems."
"Well, then, you are to be congratulated. Yours is certainly a deed of
distinction. And as a reward," he added, settling himself on a tree
stump, "let me tell you a story about two horses."
"Oh, yes, do," the youth said eagerly, sitting down at the man's feet.
"The first horse lived in Arabia, and he was beautiful and strong. He
had never lost a race. And he was shrewd. He would run just hard
enough to pull away from the other horses in the race, and then he
would let up and trot, or even walk, across the finish line, to the great
embarrassment and humiliation of all the other horses."
"He was clearly a superior animal," the young poet interjected.
"Yes, he was," agreed the man. "Now the other horse lived in
Macedonia, and he, too, was strong and noble. He had, however, lost
one race, the first race of his life; and some say he always remembered
that when he ran."
"How grating to the heart it must be to lose so early and have a blight
on one's reputation," mused the young man.
"But this horse always won every other race. And unlike our first horse,
when this Macedonian horse ran and knew he had beaten the other
horses, instead of letting up he redoubled his efforts and ran even
harder--as hard as he could--for he now ran not against the fortuitous
competitors with whom he began the race, but against his own heart:
against all horses past and all horses future, against every horse in
Macedonia and every one in Arabia, and also against the ideal horse
with a pace so frighteningly fast that few can conceive its possibility.
And even more than this, he ran toward the perfection of excellence
itself. And when he crossed the finish line, as happy as he was to win,

he secretly lamented that his opponents had not been fast enough to
threaten him and push him onward."
"Even though he lost once," the lad remarked after a short silence,
"perhaps this horse was as good as the Arabian."
"Perhaps so, my child," said the man, with a smile. "Perhaps so."

It's Nut Valuable
Once upon a time a wise and thoughtful craftsman made a new electric
adding machine. It was very complex with many gears and levers and
wheels,