The Value of Knowledge

[Carol Anne Kincaid~Paradis]

You are an original, an individual, a masterpiece.
Celebrate that; don't let your uniqueness make you shy.
Don't be someone other than the wonder you are.
Every star is important to the sky.
Douglas Pagels...HAPPY TRAILS..

The Value of Knowledge

As its crew was preparing to leave port, a giant cargo ship’s engine suddenly stopped working. The ship’s captain contacted one expert after another, but none of them could figure out how to fix the engine.

Then one of the captain’s senior crew contacted an older man who had been fixing problems with ship’s engines all his working life.

When he arrived, he carried a large bag of tools with him and immediately went to work spending time inspected the engine very carefully for around 45 minutes.

The ship’s captain and members of his crew stood close by watching the old man and hoping he would know what to do to fix the engine.

After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something on the side of the engine and instantly, the engine lurched into life. 

He put his hammer in his bag stating that the engine was fixed.

A couple of weeks later on the ships return to port, the captain received an invoice from the old man for $10,000.00.

‘What?’ . . . the captain exclaimed. ‘He hardly did anything!’

So, he sent a note to the old man asking him to provide an itemised invoice setting all of his charges.

The old man sent back the itemised invoice which read:

1. Time spent checking the engine - $100.00
2. Tapping the engine with a hammer - $ 50.00
3.  Knowing where to tap - $ 9,850.00

An expert's knowledge has an enormous value, if it helps provide a quick and effective solution.

Author Unknown

Haida - Chiefs Rattle

In the beginning, the world was dark. The people wondered and argued about something they had heard of, but had never seen - daylight. Some said that the river chief kept daylight in a special box.

Raven lived in the dark world. He was sly, wise, greedy, and meddlesome. And he could change his form to suit his own needs. Raven decided to find out about daylight, so he turned into a hemlock needle and dropped into a freshwater spring. When the river chief's daughter came to the spring to drink, Raven floated into her cup, and she swallowed him. In due time, Raven was born as the grandson of the river chief.

Raven grew very fast and his grandfather adored him, even though he threw tantrums and his eyes looked a little like a raven's. When he screamed, his doting grandfather let him play with the Moon Box. He opened the box and the moon escaped into the sky. When Raven wailed again, his grandfather let him play with the Box of Daylight. As soon as the box was in his possession, Raven changed back into a bird and flew through the smoke hole and disappeared into the darkness.

Raven brought the box to the people and opened it slightly, allowing a few streaks of daylight to escape. But they did not believe he actually had daylight. Angered by the people's skepticism, he threw open the box and flooded the world with the bright light of day.

Some believe that Raven was actually a human being, or even a great chief, who slipped into the skin of a raven when he wanted to be tricky.