Donauschwaben wisdom
is often humorous, dry and yet it tells us a great
deal about the character of our ancestors social
mores. The story about the farmer and his old
donkey which had poor eye site is one of them.
As all stories start, once upon a time there was a
farmer who owned an old donkey who had outlived his
usefulness and a Schwenkelbrunnen (a well) that had dried up and
was of no use to the farmer and should have been
filled in long ago.
The donkey served the
farmer many years and was tolerated walking about
the farm. One day the donkey overlooked the
Schwenkelbrunnen and fell in. The farmer made
various attempts to help the donkey out of his
dilemma and pull him out of the well, but everything
failed.
So the farmer decided
to call his neighbors and friends to help him fill
in the Schwenkelbrunnen where the donkey had fell
in. As they began to fill in the shaft of the
Schwenkelbrunnen, the donkey began to worry and made
loud noises but soon realized what was going on and
calmed down, maybe he figured the farmer had the
same thought he had. Every time a shovel with
dirt fell on the donkey, he just shook it off again
and again. Soon the donkey rose higher and
higher and finally, to the farmers and helpers
surprise, was able to walk out off his compromising
situation.
The moral of this
story is, regardless of what kind of problems you
might be facing, always think about the farmers’
donkey, and no matter how terrible the situation
might be, shake off your problems and at the end you
may be able to walk away from them like the farmers
donkey did.
[Published at www.dvhh.org, 17
February 2007]
