Everyone knows Aesop’s story about the turtle beating a bragging rabbit in a foot race. Few know Aesop was from Africa, a vagabond storyteller not afraid to speak truth to power. Later “ghostwriters” boiled his stories down to the familiar short plots with a moral. Too many folks dismiss them unwarrantedly as “mere children’s tales.” 

We will look at some fables and their many adaptations. We’ll particularly look at how Aesop surely “fleshed” them out in his telling, and why it is never necessary to say, “And the moral is”. Finally, we will sit in STORY CIRCLE, and learn from one another. Each person who wishes will have opportunity to tell their own Aesop like tale, one they’ve brought along, or one suggested in the beginning discussion.

Larry Johnson started telling campfire stories in the late 60s, also encouraging angry young people to gain positive recognition for speaking out by telling their own stories. He started the participatory patient TV channel at Minneapolis Children’s Hospital, taught as a school storytelling/video specialist in Minneapolis, and co-taught STORYTELLING AS A MODERN COMMUNICATION ART at Metro State University. A story in his book, SIXTY-ONE, led to his receiving the 2019 VETERANS VOICES AWARD from the Minnesota Humanities Center. As Old Gardening Party (the OGP) Director, Larry writes a monthly column encouraging adults to keep the world safe for children, gardening, and storytelling.