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There is a Japanese folk tale that teaches us a valuable lesson about being human. One day a man recues a Crane that is locked into a hunter’s trap.
Some time later, a stranger knocks the man’s door. To cut the story short, they get married. The woman has an asset; she can weave the most beautiful garments which enriches the man when he sells them at the market.
But, and there’s always a but in these stories, the condition that his wife insists on, is that he never enters the room whilst she is weaving.
In the course of time, he discovers that she is the crane he saved, and she is weaving the garments with her own feathers.
When she realise, he has not kept his promise to respect her confidentiality, she leaves, and he never sees are again.
Now what is the moral of the story? The story highlights the delicate balance between trust, honour, and compassion.
We have all been there, we tell someone something and before we know it, our confidential talk is like a bag of feathers in the wind. Then, it becomes difficult to maintain a relationship with the person. We learn to exercise caution. A confidential matter does not need to be acknowledged; it goes without saying.
Take a few moments to consider the following verse that teach us the value of virtue in these cases.
“Debate your case with your neighbor,
and don’t betray the confidence of another."
Proverbs 25:9.
“And be kind to one another, tender hearted,
forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you."
Ephesians 4:32.
Verses from the World English Bible
Writing: © 2024 Jim McCrory