Category: moral character

Trashing Men in the Movies

Commentary We’ve come a long way from the days when female reviewers grumbled that men won all the star parts in movies whilst female characters were one-dimensional props to hero males. Many of the producers and playwrights churning out today’s entertainment display total indifference to making male characters believable. One of my favourite movie performances…


Aesop’s Fables: Three Bullocks and a Lion

A lion had been watching three bullocks feeding in an open field. He had tried to attack them several times, but they had kept together, and helped each other to drive him off. The lion had little hope of eating them, for he was no match for three strong bullocks with their sharp horns and…


Aesop’s Fables: The Cat, the Cock, and the Young Mouse

A very young mouse, who had never seen anything of the world, almost came to grief the very first time he ventured out. And this is the story he told his mother about his adventures. “I was strolling along very peaceably when, just as I turned the corner into the next yard, I saw two…


Aesop’s Fables: The Stag and His Reflection

A stag, drinking from a crystal spring, saw himself mirrored in the clear water. He greatly admired the graceful arch of his antlers, but he was very much ashamed of his spindling legs. “How can it be,” he sighed, “that I should be cursed with such legs when I have so magnificent a crown.” At…


Aesop’s Fables: The Two Goats

Two goats, frisking gayly on the rocky steeps of a mountain valley, chanced to meet, one on each side of a deep chasm through which poured a mighty mountain torrent. The trunk of a fallen tree formed the only means of crossing the chasm, and on this not even two squirrels could have passed each…


Aesop’s Fables: The Wolf and the Lamb

A stray lamb stood drinking early one morning on the bank of a woodland stream. That very same morning a hungry wolf came by farther up the stream, hunting for something to eat. He soon got his eyes on the lamb. As a rule Mr. Wolf snapped up such delicious morsels without making any bones…


Aesop’s Fables: The Wild Boar and the Fox

A wild boar was sharpening his tusks busily against the stump of a tree, when a fox happened by. Now the fox was always looking for a chance to make fun of his neighbors. So he made a great show of looking anxiously about, as if in fear of some hidden enemy. But the boar…


Aesop’s Fables: The Lion and the Mouse

A lion lay asleep in the forest, his great head resting on his paws. A timid little mouse came upon him unexpectedly, and in her fright and haste to get away, ran across the lion’s nose. Roused from his nap, the lion laid his huge paw angrily on the tiny creature to kill her. “Spare…


Aesop’s Fables: The Heron

Aesop (c. 620–564 B.C.) was a Greek storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as “Aesop’s Fables.” His tales, with their moral value, have long influenced our culture and civilization, contributing not only to the education and moral character building of children, but also, with their universal appeal, to the self-reflection of…


Aesop’s Fables: The Frog and the Mouse

Aesop (c. 620–564 B.C.) was a Greek storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as “Aesop’s Fables.” His tales, with their moral value, have long influenced our culture and civilization, contributing not only to the education and moral character building of children, but also, with their universal appeal, to the self-reflection of…