Oatmeal Diaries

You might’ve thought that after 2500 years, they’d be insightful enough to give the poor Shepherd’s Boy a break. Or at least quit going around saying to school children everywhere that he was just quite simply a liar and deserved what he got.

But parents and teachers, struggling to teach the consequences of lying, are perhaps scared of being blamed by the kids, sitting in front of their psychiatrists, for making them into liars, unless they stick to the 2500-year-old-moral-of-the-story. Or maybe since that’s the way the fable has been told for centuries, it’s difficult to think of it any other way. Or maybe they didn't recognize perhaps he was ADHD.

So “a liar will not be believed even when he speaks the truth” is the only moral to the story of The Shepherd’s Boy that they tell. They leave out the difficult part that requires them to take action and effort and go deeper into the Shepherd’s Boy troubling behavior.

For a refresher, here’s how the story goes. 

From Aesop’s Fables: The Shepherd’s Boy

There was once a young Shepherd Boy who tended his sheep at the foot of a mountain near a dark forest.

It was rather lonely for him all day, so he thought upon a plan by which he could get a little company and some excitement. 

He rushed down towards the village calling out, “Wolf, Wolf,” and the villagers came out to meet him, and some of them stopped with him for a considerable time. 

This pleased the boy so much that a few days afterwards he tried the same trick, and again the villagers came to his help. 

But shortly after this a Wolf actually did come out from the forest, and began to worry the sheep, and the boy of course cried out “Wolf, Wolf,” still louder than before. 

But this time the villagers, who had been fooled twice before, thought the boy was again deceiving them, and nobody stirred to come to his help. 

So the Wolf made a good meal off the boy’s flock, and when the boy complained, the wise man of the village said: 

“A liar will not be believed even when he speaks the truth.”

The villagers heap blame on the Shepherd’s Boy, smacking the-liar-liar-pants-on-fire label on him and walking away. But the Shepherd boy is undeserving of the total burden of blame. 

What Goes Unrecognized by the Villagers

What goes unrecognized is this Shepherd’s Boy is a child and perhaps he is ADHD. He cries out in boredom and loneliness to the villagers. “It was rather lonely for him all day, so he thought upon a plan by which he could get a little company and some excitement,” according to the fable. But that goes unacknowledged by the villagers as they brush that aside to only know him as a liar. 

The What Ifs

What if … the villagers had acknowledged his boredom and recognized his agonizing loneliness? 

What if … the Shepherd’s Boy had ADHD and was given the job of sheep shaver, a more active task, instead of the sedentary job of sheep watcher?

What if … the villagers simply asked themselves: what drives the Shepherd’s Boy behavior? And what can we do to interrupt it and teach acceptable behaviors?

What if … the villagers asked themselves to examine their own behaviors and how it continued to drive the Shepherd’s Boy unacceptable behavior?

Then the moral of the story would have been different. The slaughtered sheep would have been saved. The Shepherd’s Boy integrity would have been saved. Teaching and learning opportunities would have been seized. 

If only … the villagers had recognized the real problem, they would have felt better about themselves and the boy. If only … 

Reimagining the moral to the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf 

"It takes a village, a community, a society, all advocating to meet all the needs of our children."

Reimagining Oatmeal with Oatmeal Wolf 

What you will need to serve one Oatmeal Wolf

Serves 1

1 cup of milk
¼ cup quick cook steel cut oatmeal
Dash of sea salt
1 pat of butter
2 Tablespoons honey
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 strawberries, sliced lengthwise
3 blueberries
1 raspberry

How to prepare Oatmeal Wolf

Bring milk to the brink of boiling in a saucepan on the stovetop. Add oatmeal, sea salt, butter, honey, and vanilla extract. Reduce heat to medium low and stir to combine well. 

Gently cook about 7 minutes, stirring frequently. When oatmeal mixture gets as thick as you like it, turn off heat, put a lid on top of the saucepan, and allow to cool a few minutes. 

Meanwhile, slice 2 strawberries lengthwise. 

Serve oatmeal in a bowl, topped with strawberries for the eyebrows and cheeks, blueberries for the eyes and nose, and a raspberry mouth. 

A new way to imagine, prepare, and serve oatmeal! Enjoy! 

Fables and stories teach us goodness. They ignite our imaginations and creativity and inspire our moral development. Aesop’s fable of The Fox and The Stork is no exception. 

Morals govern our behaviors. Several morals can be reaped from The Fox and The Stork. 

Never make fun of the limitations of others. 

People will treat you the same way you treat them. 

An eye for an eye. 

Here’s the fable, in case you need a refresher:

The Fox and The Stork from Aesop’s Fables

At one time the Fox and the stork were on visiting terms and seemed very good friends. 

So the fox invited the Stork to dinner, and for a joke put nothing before her but some soup in a very shallow dish. 

This the Fox could easily lap up, but the Stork could only wet the end of her long bill in it, and left the meal as hungry as when she began. 

“I’m sorry,” said the Fox, “the soup is not to your liking.” “Pray do not apologize,” said the Stork. “I hope you will return this visit and come and dine with me soon.” 

So a day was appointed when the Fox should visit the Stork; but when they were seated at the table all that was for their dinner was contained in a very longnecked jar with a narrow mouth in which the Fox could not insert his snout, so all he could manage to do was lick the outside of the jar. 

“I will not apologize for the dinner,” said the Stork: “One bad turn deserves another.” 

Or in other words the moral of The Fox and the Stork story is: 

An eye for an eye. 

What’s wrong with embracing “an eye for an eye” as a guiding light? 

Well, for one thing, it’s using it as justification for personal vengeance. 

“An eye for an eye only leads to more blindness,” says Margaret Atwood. 

“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind,” admonishes Mahatma Gandhi. 

“If we do an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, we will be a blind and toothless nation,” says Martin Luther King, Jr.

A Better Way 

The Stork in the fable of The Fox and The Stork would do better to call out the Fox. The Stork could acknowledge that the trick is recognized as the insult it is intended to be. 

The best the Stork can do is to get the Fox and such others out of her life. “We accept the love we think we deserve,” says Stephen Chbosky. 

People, who cannot find happiness in their own lives, will not permit those around them to be happy either.

A better moral to the Aesop’s fable of The Fox and The Stork is: 

“Walk away and don’t look back.”

A better, more creative way to imagine oatmeal is Wise Owl Oatmeal.