Misadventures in the Land of Fables #54
While searching for images to accompany ‘Aphorism #2,’ in which a man digs a hole looking for treasure, I found numerous illustrations for Aesop’s fable of the miser and his pot of gold. A fable I hadn’t thought much about, because I prefer the animals fables and because miser’s are easy targets; nobody likes a miser, including misers themselves.
The fable is harsh. The miser puts all his money into a pot and buries it. He lives modestly, joylessly, we assume, but finds a strange comfort in visiting his wealth. But one day he finds it has been stolen and someone tells him he might as well have buried a stone for all the difference it made. In some versions, the theif substitutes a stone for the gold.) I like to think they paint with a nice gold enamel to get the full effect.) There is also a morbid epigram from the Greek in which the man discovering the gold has come to commit suicide. He takes the gold and leaves the rope and the miser, bereft of his fortune, uses the rope (or ‘halter’) as intended.
Our relationships with money are fraught with inconsistencies. They can be destructive and neurotic. And the miser’s relationship with money is characterised as unhealthy or perverted or, let us say, dysfunctional. And yet, the moral of the fable, that wealth unused might as well not exist, isn’t quite correct. A rational argument can be made for not spending your wealth. Savings provide security and security is a value, regardless of whether the money is called upon. Indeed, many sleep soundly in the knowledge that they are insulated from destitution by their savings, or by insurance.
The miser places a higher priority on security than others. The meanest among us are fond of rebuking the unfortunate for not having thought ahead, for not having saved for a rainy day, for not deferring gratification in order to secure their financial futures, but although this may be a fair point, and quite rational, it is also uncharitable, callous, and joyless. You might detect an undercurrent of fear. The imagination of the miser may be gripped by the possibility of calamity and misfortune. The pot of gold then becomes a rock to cling to in the storm, even while others drown.
This is how my version goes: ‘The Miser and his Pot of Gold.’
