Today’s Thinking Out Loud reflection is on Aesop’s Fable, The Gnat and the Bull. Aesop’s
Fables is available for free download here.
The Fable
“A Gnat alighted on one of the horns of a Bull, and remained
sitting there for a considerable time. When it had rested
sufficiently and was about to fly away, it said to the Bull, “Do
you mind if I go now?” The Bull merely raised his eyes and
remarked, without interest, “It’s all one to me; I didn’t notice
when you came, and I shan’t know when you go away.”
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Note: One of the observations I’ve had while working in academia is that many professors have an inflated sense of self importance. There were times when I was attending meetings that I thought I was experiencing Dante’s seventh circle of hell. One or two people monopolized the conversations going on and on about something that was important to them but to no one else. Like many academic meetings, the meetings ended with nothing accomplished. People who make a difference are the people we miss when they go away. The gnats, not so much.