Substance Over Form. No. 33. The Stag and His Reflection - The Essential Aesop? - Back to Basics Abridgment Series
Gregg Zegarelli Esq.
Managing Shareholder at Technology & Entrepreneurial Ventures Law Group, PC
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." Leonardo da Vinci. Adopted by Steve Jobs.
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A Stag?saw his reflection?in a pond.?
He loved his powerful antlers, but he was ashamed?of his spindling?legs.?He thought to himself, “Why am I cursed with these legs when I have such a magnificent crown!”
At that moment, a Hunter?approached.?Startled, the Stag sprang into the forest to escape, where his antlers caught him in a trap.?
As the Hunter approached to kill him, the Stag said to himself, “I prided in these antlers, but they have killed me, and these legs that I despised?would have saved me.”
Moral of the Story: The substance of a thing is beautiful for how it serves and what it does. The deeper we can appreciate substantive beauty in a thing, and in what we place our value, is an expressed admission of our own human depth.
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Introduction ?- The Essential Aesop -?Epilogue
Related Article: The Business of Aesop? No. 33 - The Stag and His Reflection
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Why We Loved It:?Aesop again chooses his character carefully: his magnificent Stag.
In this fable, there is more than the elemental comeuppance we found in the frivolous pride of The Peacock's Tail [1] . And we find a variation only an assessment of what a thing does as we found in The Cat, Cock and Mouse [2] .
In this fable, there is perhaps a merger of both concepts of superficiality and substance by the subject and the object subsisting in the same place, being the Stag.
Many of Aesop's characters have superficial physical beauty, but, in this fable we have the juxtaposition of pride and shame by comparative superficiality, with the failure to appreciate the beauty of a thing (self, here) for the substance of what a thing does.
This fable is profound because it exposes a reversal of common assessment, for those who can perceive it. We think that we judge a thing, but the thing we judge and how we judge it is really a self-admitted exposure of who we are. Thus, the adages, "The narrow-sighted have no depth of perception," and "Telling tells."
That is, when we attribute beauty to a thing, we admit what we value, as beautiful. So said Socrates on his deathbed:
"Many of the noblest specimens of the human race have been among the weakest physically. Aesop would have been exposed to his death at Sparta [because of Aesop's physical deformities]. And some of the fairest and strongest men and women have been among the wickedest and worst."
[3] One person appreciates a truck because it is a pretty red, and another appreciates a truck because it has the power to move things. One person loves to read books, and another person loves to buy ties. A thing is what it is, but how we express value of a thing, admits who we are. An adult might publish a childish flippant political post on Facebook; many people will naturally think about the target and content of the post, but the wise think about the self-admission by the person making the post. The wise are always considering the source of information, particularly when it purports to influence, or to teach. [4 , 5 , 6 , 7]
Here, the Stag judged the book by its cover. How the thing looks, rather than what the thing does. [*2]
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It is a common and natural slight of hand: it's not about the thing, which simply is, it is about the person's admission about how a person assesses the thing that is.
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be." [8]
[8] ONE?: The LinkedIn Reference Set [#GRZ_183] 6.1 ONE: 577 [T6:21] ("Heart Treasure"); ONE: 2121 [T22:20, R12:16, L20:24]; 6.2 ONE: 609 [L6:38] ("The Measure"); 6.3 ONE: 600 [T6:29] ("Substance") ("I tell?you: not even Solomon, in all his splendor, was clothed?so well as one?little?flower.")
"Ad myopic nulla profunditas perceptionis." ("To the near-sighted, there is no depth of perception."); "Narrat expressio." ("Telling tells.") ~grz
*?Gregg Zegarelli , Esq., earned both his Bachelor of Arts Degree and his Juris Doctorate from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His dual major areas of study were History from the College of Liberal Arts and Accounting from the Business School (qualified to sit for the CPA examination), with dual minors in Philosophy and Political Science. He has enjoyed Adjunct Professorships in the Duquesne University Graduate Leadership Master Degree Program (The Leader as Entrepreneur; Developing Leadership Character Through Adversity) and the University of Pittsburgh Law School (The Anatomy of a Deal). He is admitted to various courts throughout the United States of America.
Gregg Zegarelli , Esq.,?is Managing Shareholder of?Technology & Entrepreneurial Ventures Law Group, PC .?Gregg is nationally rated as "superb" and has more than 35 years of experience working with entrepreneurs and companies of all sizes, including startups,?INC. 500, and publicly traded companies.?He is author of?One: The Unified Gospel of Jesus ,?and?The Business of Aesop ? article series, and co-author with his father,?Arnold Zegarelli , of?The Essential Aesop: For Business, Managers, Writers and Professional Speakers .?Gregg is a frequent lecturer, speaker and faculty for a variety of educational and other institutions.?
? 2013 Arnold Zegarelli? and?Gregg Zegarelli, Esq . ?Gregg can be contacted through?LinkedIn .?Arnold Zegarelli ?can be contacted through?Facebook .
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