Dogs, Cheese,
& Water: The MORE Desire
'No
person leaves this world with even half of his desires fulfilled. When we have
100, we want to make it 200; when we have 200 hundred, we want to make it 400
hundred"
Midrash, Kohelet Rabah 1:13
“Once a dog seized a piece of cheese
in the house and ran with it until he came to a bridge. Looking down into the
water, he was the reflection of the cheese in his own mouth and thought, ‘If
only I had that cheese, too! Two pieces are better than one.’
But when he opened his mouth to
seize the second piece, the first fell out and sank to the bottom of the
stream. He tumbled in after it, but when he emerged, he had nothing in his
mouth but mud and weeds.
So taught the wise Solomon: Be happy with what you have in your hand and
your possession, and do not envy what is another’s.
The
Dog, the Cheese, & the Water from The Classic Tales: 4000 Years of
Jewish Lore
“(My)
Goodie, Elle (now of blessed memory)
and I play fetch in the backyard twice a day – the first time, in the morning
and secondly late afternoon.
(Moses, my
old faithful chevrutah (study partner also now of blessed memory), prefers first chair to ball when I study).
I throw
three to four balls. And invariably Goodie, still without success, tries to put
two rubber balls in her mouth – as a result neither is in the mouth! And even
when she has a rubber ball in her mouth, the one Elle is fetching looks better
– more….
I can only
wonder through osmosis in domesticating our dogs more has transferred as Goodie, with a rubber ball in mouth, would
go after Elle’s in a ‘burning bush’ because it might better.
(That
said, my Goodie would first sit before the hallowed bush.)
A Ball in Goodie’s Mouth isn’t as
Good as Elle’s Ball in the Bush
(Inner) Journeys with Goodie: The GOODie Book
(unpublished by Jim Schwartz)
Who is
rich; he who is satisfied with his portion
Ben
Zoma, Ethics of the Fathers
Oh,
and by the way, the Latin root of satisfied/satisfaction is satis – ‘enough’)
