| Golden Ax, Silver Ax | |
June 9, 2015
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| He was a woodcutter. When he was cutting down a tree in the forest, his ax accidentally hit a hard knot, and it flew into the nearby deep pond and sunk down. He was shocked. He was a poor woodcutter, and it was his precious ax in order to make a living. Not being able to give up hope that he could find it, he was looking to see if he could see it from the edge of the pond. Suddenly, a goddess ascended from the pond. He was very surprised because the pond was murky. She held an ax which was gleaming. It was a golden ax. The goddess asked the woodcutter, "Is this your ax?" He remembered the old tale that his mother would read to him as a child. In the story, the man honestly answered that it was not his ax, and the goddess gave him not only a golden ax but also a silver ax as well, saying she was amazed at his honesty. But, on the other hand, another guy, who was greedy, threw his ax on purpose into the pond, and the same thing happened. But, this time, he said that it was his, and the goddess got
Anyways, he was an honest person so he answered, "It's not my ax." The goddess replied, "Oh, really, I thought this was yours." Then the goddess returned into the pond and soon re-appeared with a silver ax and asked him again. The woodcutter hesitated this time because before she sounded like she believed that the golden ax was his. But he was an honest person, he couldn't tell a lie. He said, "I don't think so." The goddess said, "Oh, really? It's a pity." She disappeared and re-appeared with an old iron ax and asked him again. He said yes. The goddess gave it to him and disappeared into the pond. He was waiting for her re-appearance for a while, but she didn't re-appear. He felt offended at first but he was inheritably a good-natured guy, so he was satisfied with his old ax and returned home. He told this story to his wife. The wife said, "You did the right thing, so I don't want to say anything bad, but c" His wife sighed looking at their poor hut. She continued, "We are poor. If you had said something suitable c" He sighed and said, "Hindsight is 20/20. I might have lost even my own ax. In that case, our life would have become poorer." She insisted, "You could have said something vague like c 'it might be c', or, 'it looks like c', or, 'My eyesight is bad c'" She stopped, but kept on, "Oh, she might have wanted you to receive the golden ax because she knew about our poor life c" Finally, she said, "Why don't you try it again tomorrow?" He couldn't say no. The next day, the woodcutter went back to the pond and pretended to cut a tree and released his ax. It flew into the pond, and after a few seconds the goddess appeared with a golden ax. She soon recognized him. "Oh, yesterday's you. In that case c" She was about to return into the pond. "Wait!" He shouted, "It's mine!" She was surprised because he shouted loudly. But, he thought she was angry and started to say, "It might look like c" The goddess interrupted him, "Oh, I thought so." She smiled. She gave him the golden ax and soon disappeared. He was taken aback, standing in awe by the edge of the pond, holding the golden ax. Happily he went back home. The wife seeing his good fortune, they happily went to a pawn shop and exchanged it for money. They bought some food and they stopped by the ironware shop to buy a new ax. When he held the ax, his wife said that he should buy two axes in case of his loosing one. He accepted her idea. The next day, he was about to leave his house for work, when his wife asked him to take her with him because she wanted to see the pond. He agreed and they went to the pond together. As soon as they got to the pond, his wife took out the ax that they had bought from her knapsack and threw it into the pond. Soon, the goddess appeared with a silver ax. The goddess asked her if it was hers and the wife said yes. Surprisingly, the goddess gave her the silver ax and disappeared. The husband was speechless. He wondered how his wife was so brave or so reckless. But more surprisingly for him, on their way home, when they stopped by the ironware shop, she ordered more 30 iron axes. The next day, he and his wife went to the pond and threw in a new iron ax. The goddess appeared and this time she gave them a bronze ax. The woodcutter and his wife went to the pond every day with a new iron ax. This thing continued for a month. In this period, they received various type of axes: an ax made of platinum, an ax made of titanium, a lithium ax, a beryllium ax, vanadium, gallium, germanium, rubidium, zirconium, molybdenum, palladium, yttrium, dysprosium c they were 'Rare Metals'. Some of them were more precious and expensive than gold. Using this money, they started to employ young people and trained them as woodcutters. Originally, this country's forests were ruined because of imported cheap lumbers from abroad as well as mountain owners' aging. When the woodcutter took over this job from his father, his father said it was his responsibility to maintain forests from their ancestors' age. But times went by, woodcutters became poorer and poorer and eventually most of them quit. The wood cutter and his wife made teams of woodcutters, and started to thin out crowded trees of the forest. After cutting trees, they planted young saplings. The forest became clean like the old times. They expanded their work place to other forests. They sold the wood at a rather cheap price, so more people started to build wooden houses. They remembered the advantages of a wooden house: good insulation and purifying air. As the forests became beautiful, the water of the rivers became clearer, because the leaves of the woods and the rich soil from the decayed leaves filtered much of the mud, and provided clear water for the rivers. Somebody thought the goddess knew that the woodcutter couple would do this. Because after their activities, the pond's water became clear and clean. Nowadays, villagers come to picnic here to enjoy its rich nature. |
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*murky :dirty and dark (C)
*be taken aback :to be very surprised or shocked (C)
*hindsight :the understanding that you have of a situation only after it has happened (O)
[Hindsight is 20/20] :Phrase used to describe the fact that it is easy for one to be knowledgable about an event after it has happened. (Urban Dictionary)
*sapling :a young tree (C)
*ethics :ideas and beliefs about what type of behaviour is morally right and wrong (C)