Leading from the Middle

Caption: Rene Magritte's Son of Man, 1946 OR, The Quiet Quitter.

This "horse turds" fable fits some quiet quitters, shirkers and slackers of the egregious variety better than does the harmless fly along for the ride:

Upon a very great Fall of Rain, the Current carried away a huge Heap of Apples, together with a Dunghill that lay in the Watercourse.
They floated a good while together like Brethren and Companions; and as they went thus dancing down in the Stream, the Horse-Turds would be every foot crying out still, "Alack-a-day! How we Apples swim!"
THE MORAL. Every thing would be thought greater in the World than it is; and the Root of it is this, that it first thinks itself so.
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Like braggadocious fishing boat fleas claiming as the boat comes into harbor, "We have rowed well!" here we have Horse turds along for the ride.
They?re in the flood with Apples like 'Brethren and Companions" regaling all who will listen, "How we Apples swim!"
So, the moral would have us be mindful of humankind's (yours and mine) impression that we too, while quietly quitting, are pulling our fair share of the load when we are not.
In other words, practice humility, be humble, lest ye look foolish like the Horse-turds.

*Source: Aesop’s Fables translated by Sir Roger L'Estrange, 1692.
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Copyright John Lubans 2023

 

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