Run Your Own Race

When Coug and Cooper were tucked into their beds, their Dad came in to read them their story.

Coug wanted to tell his father about what had happened that day.  Coug told him as quickly as possible, to get it over with.

“First I laughed that a turtle would race against me. She was just running so slow Dad, SO slow!  Bixie was nowhere in sight, so, I thought I had time to rest.  So, then I climbed into the branches of a shade tree just for a few minutes.  I fell asleep and Bixie won.”

Coug stopped to catch his breath.

“It was really upsetting, Dad,” he went on.  “Then I was mad and blamed my sneakers for losing the race.  The last thing I did was call Bixie a cheater.  Dad, please don’t be mad at me.”

Coug’s Dad just shook his head.  Being a Dad takes a lot of patience.  A real lot.  Dad walked over to the bookcase and found a thick book of short stories.

“Son, there’s a story I want to read to you, written a long, long time ago by a very smart man called Aesop,” he said.  “The book he wrote is called “Aesop’s Fables”.  And this story is called “The Tortoise and the Hare.”