Getting Stupider
The Wolf and the DragonGoal and Audience
Someone once told me something like this a long time ago, and I couldn’t find it anywhere. A friend asked about it, so I wrote it down.
This piece might be relevant if:
- you’re that friend.
The Wolf and the Dragon
The wolf was quick, and the dragon was wise. They sat together side-by-side.
The wolf confessed to the dragon, “Dragon, I fear my mind grows old. My wits, like the winds of late, now falter in their pace.”
To which the dragon arched a brow, and replied: “Friend, why should you say such a thing? Are your claws not as sharp as they ever were?”
“When we were young,” said the wolf, “in the glade by the brook, do you remember when they taught us of the patterns of the skies?” And of course the dragon did.
“Back then,” the wolf continued, “I remembered each falling star with seven moons’ notice, all on my own.” It was true: the wolf had needed no reminders, for the wolf of old was bright and sharp-eyed. “But now I must scratch lines in the clay with my claws, lest my mind fails me as it is wont to. How have I fallen so far from grace?”
“In the glade,” said the dragon, “what did you do?”
The wolf replied, confused, “I studied a great many things, as did you.”
To which the dragon said, “And now?”
The wolf thought. “Still I study. But now I hunt, and I kill. I tend to my kin, I clean their wounds. I seek out the trails, and at night I recall what I can of the stars.”
The dragon looked to the sky, and said: “Would you fault the cypress that spreads its branches wide?”
Thus the wolf rested, clear-eyed and sharp of mind.