Two Salutory Tales by KJ Hannah Greenberg.

 

The Tortoise vs. The Hare

 

Once upon a time, there was a pretty young lady, who boasted how quickly she could shed pounds. She told all of the other young women in her coterie that she could beat any of them at losing weight.

Accordingly, she maxed out on aerobics, on Zouk Lambada, and on kickboxing classes at her gym, attending sessions both before and after work. Also, she took to eating less than 1500 calories per day. Tens of pounds sloughed off of her frame. Additionally, her hair fell out in clumps, her period stopped, and she was as grouchy as her most recent ex-boyfriend. Finally, at the heeding of her office manager, she took a vacation.

During her time on an island, she sipped sugary drinks, ate piles of plantain fries and sucked down large, sauce-covered ice creams. She ambulated no further than from her bed to the diningroom and back. Whereas she met a cute European dude, she came home with an STD, with messed up blood sugar, and with an insatiable craving for maraschino cherries.

A different cutie, on the other hand, had made no similar boasts to her friends, but had concluded, privately, that she had to do something about those extra twenty pounds she had put on in college. She thought about what types of changes she could make that she could also sustain.

Initially, that young lady bought a monthly pass to her community center’s pool. She swam there anywhere from two to four times a week, making sure to get at least half of an hour of laps or of water aerobics during each visit. As well, she cut out white flour and white sugar from her eating, but was careful not to berate herself when she now and then lapsed with a cookie or with a roll. As well, she made sure to have a measure of protein each time she ate carbs.

Two years later, she walked down the aisle in a normal-sized, but not in an impossibly small, wedding gown. Her new husband was a paralegal, whom she had met on a five kilometer hike for singles. Her greatest craving was to start a family.

 

 

The Ant and the Grasshopper: A Contemporary Aesop’s Fable

 

Not too long ago, a recent college graduate signed up for two popular social networking sites. She was going to open a lemonade stand and meant to make as many connections as she could as soon as possible.

Her former roommate, with whom she kept in touch mostly via SMSing, too, dreamt of being a successful entrepreneur. Unlike her friend, the roommate hired a publicist to spread the word about her forthcoming documentary on hedgehogs.

Whereas the first gal pal was overwhelmed, initially, by the response she received from the invitations she had sent to folks, at various levels of the business food chain, to join her in promoting her sweet beverage, initially she learned how to manage her email traffic and how to use convergent media to her fiduciary advantage. She made a habit of devoting a fixed number of hours to her work per day, insuring that she would have time to prepare healthy meals, to exercise and to rest.

The would-be film maker, on the other hand, found her bank account drained by her employee and her prospects no better for all of that investment. She took up chain smoking, made a habit of using strong coffee to keep herself awake, and ate only what the local pizza shop could deliver.

Months later, the first gal introduced a second product, mint tea. The second gal found herself paying for a housekeeper, for a trainer and for an assistant. When she completely drained her savings, she moved back in with her parents.

 

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