Week 7, Reading Diary B, Tibetan Folk Tales,Reading Diary

  Squash found on huffingtonpost.com
Tibetan Folk Tales: The Golden Squash

• One day the first old man found in his garden a little, crippled bird. He took it and cared for it, felt sorry for it, healed it and fed it every day.
• He soon returned bearing a seed in his mouth which he gave to the old man, saying, "You plant this seed--it's a very fine squash seed, the very finest in the world, and be sure you tend it well."
• here grew on the vine just one squash, but it was monstrous big. 
• His old neighbor, went home, very envious, and thought he would think up a plan so that he would be rich too. He got his bow and arrow and slipped out into the garden and waited until he saw a little bird light on a tree. Then he deliberately shot, breaking its leg.
• It sprouted and grew and grew until finally when winter came he had to have five or six men help him carry his squash into the house
• He could hardly wait until he could get his knife and cut the skin, but he had no more than broken it when it popped wide open and out jumped a fierce old man, who said he was sent by the king of the lower regions to weigh him. He grabbed him by the back of the neck and set him on the scale which he carried and said, "You are far too light and no use at all," and at once took him out and cut off his head.
  
  So much for the sin of covetousness.  
  I found this story intriguing because it is short, simple but very vivid with relatable objects such as birds and food (squash). But also because it seems to bring up the idea from reading diary a that I chose to work with for writing/retelling a story of covetousness. The first guy acts from kindness and gets a reward he did not expect, the second guy acts from greed and get killed. I think that Nathan in my stories will be having his wife be a person who warns him of doom with parables but it will be his wife to whom is ultimately the evil one that is greedy and pushes Nathan to do the dirty work for her. I would like for Melusina to be an immortal somehow, the River Deity reincarnate or something. Nathan is merely a means to an end for her. Nathan really is a seeker and is a good person, but blindly does not see what is in front of him. His doom.