Like a Square Peg in a Round Hole
A fable, or anyway, something with a moral
Once upon a time... or perhaps more than once,
As sometimes happens,
A Walnut and a Flat Wall
Set off together into a fable.
Once there was a Walnut, like this...
How shall I put it? A bit of a wallflower,
She always stood timidly in the corner,
She did not live, but rather sulked.
She was a touch unhappy.
And all of a sudden Mrs. Nail Polish
Taps her on the shell with her little bottle:
"Hey, won't you come and play?
Let's have a quick game of toci."
"Me? Nooo, I don't feel quite well."
"Come on, what a wet blanket you are!
I'll never play with you again!"
And then our little Walnut
Grew sad, and out of spite
She tucked herself back into her basket
And kept her eyes squeezed tight shut.
"Better if I didn't exist at all,
Better if I had cracked into seven pieces!"
She said to herself inside
And pop, along comes the Rolling Pin:
"Let's go rolling head over heels!"
"Me? Nooo, my bottom aches..."
"Look at her, what a show-off."
Then he slid away down the slope.
And again the Walnut was left sad,
She sighed: "I'm no spoilsport."
Then the Flower appeared to her too:
"Let's gossip about Saint-John's-Wort."
"Me? No, I'm rather tired."
"She's a stuck-up little thing on principle!"
Said the Flower, offended.
And the Walnut, driven by her thoughts,
Drowned all over in tears...
The deep, deep kind.
However many came to her after that,
She quickly turned them all away.
For from the sadness she felt,
She had no heart left for play.
When her dear mama asked her:
"What's the matter, my sweet little Walnut?"
The brown Walnut, out of distress,
Answered her question.
"Let me tell you, then, dear mother of mine,
Why I am the way I am:
It must have been some seven days ago,
The Wall played with me,
And I had fun, I won't say I didn't,
But at the end he told me: 'You,
That round thing that spins about,
You're far too frail to move me
And no matter how well we play,
Your shell gets on my nerves!
Better go find yourself a walnut tree,
Stop bumping into me like that,
Go on, off you go, you wallflower!'
And another time, on a Thursday I think,
When it's also rubbish day.
The Wall stood there in place
And I invited him to play:
'Come on, you go and count over there
And I'll hide over here.'
The Wall said in agreement:
'Of course, I'm no amateur.'
And he began to count:
One, two, and other sounds.
All of a sudden, in my excitement,
'Ptooey,' I spat right beside the flowerpot.
The Wall took offense,
He shouted, he yelled, he even swore:
'I will never play with you again!'
He told me with hatred in his gaze.
And I didn't quite understand,
And, above all, I really didn't know,
What I had done so terribly wrong,
And ever since I just sit and brood.
For my soul still aches.
I didn't mean to do him harm,
I only wanted to knock against his whitewash.
Or to spit, so as to win,
And now, how am I to convince him
That I didn't mean to offend?
Oh, I'll grow old all alone!"
And the wise Mother Walnut
Told her in a calm voice:
"You still need to ripen a little!
In life you have to wear yourself out
To forgive, to forget, to laugh, to sing,
In life you have to throw yourself into things!"
Well, as the Walnut sat there like that,
Lost in thought, more of a wallflower than ever,
A muffled cough could be heard
Seemingly from the Flat Wall
As if he, on the inside,
Were coughing a breathless cough.
"I'll not write your epitaph
On account of Mister Dust"
Quickly she dashed toward him,
Spinning round like a ring,
And swiftly she began to beat him
With a well-developed kindness.
And she beat him over every spot
Without stopping, you should have seen the scene.
The little thing kept leaping up,
While he choked on the dust.
At last, after some time,
The Flat Wall came round.
And breathing rather heavily,
Looking at her without any cheek,
He lowered his gaze.
It was a little bit comical
To see a Flat Wall like that
With his shoulders slumped down,
Humble. He seemed rather to droop.
And the Walnut gently asked him:
"Have you come round? Are you all right?
Are you alive? Can you hear me?" she called from below.
"Yes," whispered the Flat Wall,
"Climb up onto the counter!"
Pop, the Walnut jumped up higher
And settled in, as she was told.
The Flat Wall then said to her:
"Thank you, I would never have thought
That after so much hatred
I would get through such a turn of events.
I always spoke harshly to you,
I drove you away, I scolded you,
And you, without a second thought,
Showed only kindness!"
And so, my dear friends,
Or simply, fellow earthlings,
Do you know that old saying from our forebears?
The one so full of wisdom?
"Like a square peg in a round hole," I think,
And I'll make no further remark.
It is good to keep an open mind, free of preconceived ideas, for even when we might believe that something would not fit, or would not be proper, sometimes, lo and behold, things can turn out otherwise.
Be kind to those around you, or at the very least, do not be unkind! Leave room for a "Good day," for you never know when you might choke and need someone to pat you on the back!