Re-writing Is Dangerous Business

Have you ever heard of Aesop's fables? You would have had to have been living under a rock for a pretty long time not to have heard of them - you freaky people who live under rocks! Aesop was a storyteller who used symbolic characters such as, shepherds, foxes, lions, mice, donkeys, wolves and monkeys, to convey his moral or opinion in an interesting and easy to relate to way. An example is, The Tortoise and the Hare. Who hasn't heard that one? A tortoise and a hare are in a race and, of course, the hare is winning. He is so comfortable with his lead that he stops to take a nap. The tortoise finally catches up and then passes the hare and wins the race. The moral of that story is: Slow and steady wins the race. 

In a  writing class I took two years ago, my teacher gave us an assignment to re-write an Aesop’s fable. I chose and easy one than, but it was still extremely fun. My friend Monica is an amazing writer as you can see on her blog, Under_Strike, and when we get together we some random stuff. Almost as random as the stuff I do with my best friend/cousin! No, we are a random pair, but we are at least partially normal thanks to her sister, who helps keep us grounded. So the random thing that we did at her birthday party was re-write Aesop’s fables. I started mine but I haven’t finished…

 I chose a story about a fox, a lion, and an ass- or donkey. The three went hunting together, (who knew donkeys were big hunters?)  and agreed to split their plunder equally. The donkey divided the meat into three equal piles and divvied them out. The lion pounced on the donkey and ate him, and proceeded to ask the fox to re-divvy the meat for only the two of them. The fox gave the lion a HUGE pile and himself, only a small amount. The lion asked, “Where did you learn to divvy like that?” The fox replied, “What happened to Donkey.”

The moral was, We learn wisdom by the misfortune of others.

Here is the beginning that I have for my story:

 Life is full injustices. The strong preying on the weak and weary, the rich and powerful striking fear into the hearts of their hapless victims.  Broken hearts shattered beyond repair, and manipulated adolescents slaves to the very drugs that were invented to save lives that now pollute and desecrate them instead.

Amidst this madness live heroes and cowards, cops and con-men, locked in an endless battle of wrong vs. right, good vs. evil. In the past right has always prevailed. But as time wares on, the bad in this wretched world of ours, has begun to far out way the good. From politicians we get corruption, from the government we get cover-ups.