Adaptation of the fable of Godofredo Daireaux
Once upon a time, there was a monkey that looked more like a mule than a monkey because of how stubborn he was. Ah! Don’t you believe it?… Well, I invite you to discover how stubborn his stubbornness reached and you will see that I am right.
It turns out that one morning, the aforementioned monkey insisted on peeling an orange while scratching his head because it itched so much. With both hands busy calming the unbearable tickling, she took the orange in her mouth and dropped it to the ground. Then he reached down and tugged at the shell with his powerful teeth. At first contact it tasted terribly bitter and he had to spit saliva to get rid of the bad taste in his mouth.
– Yuck, yuck! This shell is sour and unpleasant… I am unable to bite it because it stings my tongue and… and I want to vomit!
After pondering for a few seconds, he had another idea that struck him as sensational; It consisted of putting a foot on the fruit to hold it, and peeling off small pieces of the rind with one of the hands.
– Hahaha! I think I’ve finally hit the mark!
Still scratching with his left, he released his right and went to it with great enthusiasm. The plan wasn’t bad, but after a few seconds he had to abandon it because the position was terribly uncomfortable and only suitable for professional contortionists.
– Oh, I can’t do it like that either, it’s impossible! I will have to try another option if I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with kidney pain.
He had no choice but to change his strategy! He sat on the ground, picked up the orange with his right hand, placed it between his knees, and continued to remove the peel while continuing to scratch it with his left. Unfortunately this decision also failed: the orange slipped between his legs and began to roll on the grass like a ball! The disaster was total because the visible part of the pulp was filled with earth and remains of dry leaves.
– Grrr! … Today is my day of bad luck, but I am not going to give up. I’m going to eat this orange yes or yes!
Not for that did the monkey stop scratching! Eager to do both at the same time, he grabbed the orange with one hand and dipped it into the river to remove the dirt. Once washed, he put his huge ape lips on the edible piece and tried to suck the juice from it. Again, things went wrong: the orange was so hard that no matter how much he squeezed with his five fingers, he could not squeeze it well.
– But what is this?! … Only a few drops fall … I’m fed up!
By this time he was so fed up that he threw the orange too far and fell back onto the grass, completely depressed. Looking up at the sky and still scratching, he thought:
– ‘It cannot be that I, one of the most developed and intelligent animals on the planet, cannot peel a simple orange’.
When he had already given up everything, a ray of light passed through his mind.
– Sure, I have it! What if I stopped scratching for a while so I could peel the orange with both hands? … I would have to endure the itch for a couple of minutes, but with a little effort I suppose I could bear it. How could I not come up with such a logical and elementary solution before ?!
Reasoning sensibly paid off. He ran for the orange, took it with his right hand, soaked it in the river again to make it glistening, and with his left he removed the pieces of skin with absolute ease.
– Yupi! I have done it! I have done it!
In a jiffy he had all the segments in sight; He peeled off the first and savored it with pleasure.
– Oh, what a delight, it is the richest thing I have tasted in my life! … The truth is that the matter was not complicated … I was the complicated one!
The monkey tasted the appetizing delicacy trying to enjoy the moment. When he finished he cleaned his hands and climbed up to the branch of his favorite tree, do you know what for? … Well, to continue scratching himself at ease with his ten large primate fingers.
Moral: If at any time you have to do two tasks, it is best to put your full attention on one, finish it correctly, and then do the other. This way you will avoid wasting time in an absurd way and you will make sure that both go well.
