Life Lessons

“The measure of who we are, is what we do with what we have.” This was a quote by the legendary football coach of the Green Bay Packers, Vince Lombardi, and I feel that this statement is a great way to look at the life that we have been given and what we are doing with our lives. A book that I feel also connects with this statement and message would be the fable The Lion and the Mouse by Aesop. Aesop was a Greek storyteller who died in the year 564 B.C. and ended up creating a collection of stories known as Aesop’s Fables. I find that Aesop’s fables are relevant and true to this day and some of Aesop’s most well-known fables includes, The Gnat and the Bull, The Dog and His Reflection, The Fox and the Grapes, The Hare and the Tortoise, and The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf.

          My favorite fable by Aesop though would have to be The Lion and the Mouse. The story tells of a lion who was asleep, is awoken by a mouse who scurries across his nose which wakes the lion up, but spares the mouse at the last second when the mouse pleads to the lion to let him live and if he does, then the mouse will repay the lion. The lion finds this amusing, but lets the mouse go. Later on though, the lion gets caught in a trap while hunting and lets out a huge roar for help. The mouse recognizes the roar of the lion and rushes to help the lion. Upon finding the lion, the mouse chews the ropes of the trap, which frees and saves the lion. The mouse finishes the story by saying, “You laughed when I said I would repay you,” said the Mouse. “Now you see that even a Mouse can help a Lion.”

            The moral of the story, The Lion and the Mouse is that no matter how small or insignificant one seems to be such as the mouse, they can help those that are bigger, stronger, and mightier than them, such as the lion. There is more to the book than just the moral. One of the best picture books of The Lion and the Mouse that I have found is one by Jerry Pinkey. The pictures in the book are realistic, creative, and beautiful which helps to absorb children in the story. The story is also relatively short, with less than 190 words. This also helps to keep children engaged due to the short amount of time they would be listening or reading the story. Another way that the brevity of the book helps students is that since it is relatively short compared to most other books, it is easier to remember what events take place in the story and discussion can be held on what they think will occur, or how the events in the story make them feel.

   

The Lion and the Mouse is a story that most children will enjoy because of the beautiful artwork, brevity of the story, and the moral behind the story. This book can be truly inspiring to children of a young age, because it encourages them to reach for the stars and to realize that even though they are small in stature, they are large in what they can accomplish. I will let Mark Twain end, because he can sum it up a great deal better than what I can by saying, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”