Thought for the day How do you tame a wild beast? This is a long story ...but you will savour its essence and the truth of this Korean fable if you have the patience to read it all the way to the end. Once upon a time, a young wife named Yun Ok was at her wits end. Her husband had always been a tender and loving soulmate before he had left for the wars but, ever since he returned home, he was cross, angry, and unpredictable. She was almost afraid to live with him. Only in glancing moments did she catch a shadow of the husband she used to know and love. When people in her village fell sick, they would go for a cure to a hermit who lived deep in the mountains. A desperate Yun Ok decided to do the same. She explained the situation to the hermit. Make me a potion! she cried. Or an amulet, a drink, whatever it takes to get my husband back the way he used to be. The old man. Young woman, your request doesnt exactly fall into the same category as a broken bone or ear infection. Come back in three days. Three days later, Yun Ok returned to the hermits hut. Yun Ok, he greeted her with a smile, I have good news. There is a potion that will restore your husband to the way he used to be, but it requires an unusual ingredient. You must bring me a whisker from a live tiger. What? she gasped. Such a thing is impossible! I cannot make the potion without it! he said. That night Yun Ok tossed and turned. How could she get a whisker from a live tiger? The next day before dawn, she crept out of the house with a bowl of rice covered with meat sauce. She went to a cave on the mountainside where a tiger was known to live. She clicked her tongue very softly as she crept up, her heart pounding, and carefully set the bowl on the grass. Then, trying to make as little noise as she could, she backed away. The next day before dawn, she took another bowl of rice covered with meat sauce to the cave. She approached the same spot, clicking softly with her tongue. She saw that the bowl was empty, replaced the empty one with a fresh one, and again left, clicking softly and trying not to make any noise that would startle the wild beast. So it went on, day after day, for several months. She never saw the tiger (thank goodness for that! she thought) though she knew from footprints on the ground that the tiger - and not a smaller mountain creature - had been eating her food. Then one day as she approached, she noticed the tigers head poking out of its cave. Glancing downward, she stepped very carefully to the same spot and with as little noise as she could, set down the fresh bowl and, her heart pounding, picked up the one that was empty. After a few weeks, she noticed the tiger would come out of its cave as it heard her footsteps, though it stayed a distance away (again, thank goodness! she thought, though she knew that someday, in order to get the whisker, shed have to come closer to it). Another month went by. By this time, the tiger would wait by the empty food bowl as it heard her approaching. As she picked up the old bowl and replaced it with a fresh one, she could smell its scent, as it could surely smell hers. Actually, she thought, remembering its almost kittenish look as she set down a fresh bowl, it is a rather friendly creature, when you get to know it. The next time she visited, she glanced up at the tiger briefly and noticed what a lovely fur it had on its head. Not a week later, the tiger allowed her to gently rub its head, and it purred and stretched like a house cat. Then she knew the time had come. The next morning, very early, she brought with her a small knife. After she set down the fresh bowl and the tiger allowed her to pet its head, she said in a low voice: Oh, my tiger, may I please have just one of your whiskers? While petting the tiger with one hand, she held one whisker at its base and, with the other hand, in one quick stroke, she carved the whisker off. She stood up, speaking softly her thanks, and left, for the last time. The next morning seemed endless. At last her husband left for the rice fields. She ran to the hermits hut, clutching the precious whisker in her fist. Bursting in, she cried to the hermit: I have it! I have the tigers whisker! You dont say? he said, turning around. From a live tiger? Yes! she said. Tell me, said the hermit, interested. How did you do it? Yun Ok told the hermit how, for the last six months, she had earned the trust of the creature and it had finally permitted her to cut off one of its whiskers. With pride she handed him the whisker. The hermit examined it, satisfied himself that it was indeed a whisker from a live tiger, then flicked it into the fire where it sizzled and burned in an instant. Yun Ok, the hermit said softly, you no longer need the whisker. Tell me, is a man more vicious than a tiger? If a dangerous wild beast will respond to your gradual and patient care, do you think a man will respond any less willingly? Yun Ok stood speechless. Then she turned and stepped down the trail, turning over in her mind images of the tiger and of her husband, back and forth. She knew what she could do. Or do prefer a shorter story which says: The way to a mans heart is through his stomach! Have a good day, kababayan!
Posted on: Thu, 05 Dec 2013 01:40:59 +0000
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