GOING TO TOWN
For Merv Lane, my exquisite teacher who introduced me to Buckminster Fuller
and how necessary it is to make mistakes, It is Merv who first told me this story and used it as a teaching tool
Music: Raga Gorakh Kalyan by Shivkumar Sharma
It is an old Sufi story about how to do things the right way . . .
One day
Dovrogheen and his young son went to town with their donkey
Dovrogheen rode, while the son walked
Soon two men approached, and one of them said
"Old man, it is shameful that you ride while your young son walks"
So
after they passed
Dovrogheen got off the donkey, and lifted his son onto it
and they proceeded
Dovrogheen walking
Soon, two women approached
and
when they were within hearing distance one of them said
"It is disrespectful my boy, to ride on that donkey while your aged father walks "
So
After they passed, Dovrogheen got back on the donkey
and
They were both now riding
In a while, a man and his wife came up to them and said
"What a cruel thing you do, my friends, both riding that poor donkey
Do you want to break his back?"
and so
Dovrogheen got off the donkey, lifted his son down
and they proceeded along the road to town
all three walking
Just as they came to the outskirts of the town
a group of young students on some steps
looking across the road, began to laugh
"Look at this, my friends, here's a lesson for you
two dunces have a donkey to ride
but instead
they are going walking
How foolish can you get?"