Asinus

Programming.

This is an article in honor of my car – perfectly, the poor beast that I almost killed on the job today – of my little cousins with whom I saw at least ten wild boars and we chased them away with pine cones, they were damn scared, the boars – and of those Sunday drivers who make you understand that life really only hangs by a thread and that, in fact, living is a miracle.

And so, as I drove my old car, which can no longer accelerate very well, running out of breath uphill, in the middle of a tide of younger, badly driven donkeys, I thought of the real donkeys that, not so long ago, drove their humans to their destinations.
We don’t love donkeys enough.

The story of the Golden Donkey of Apuleius is proof of this. So, as I am in a vein of “honor” and “wonders for children who see wild boars that grown-ups can’t see“, I preferred to put forward another story, which is soberly entitled : The Memoirs of a Donkey, by the Countess of Segur.

The main character is therefore a donkey, nicely named: Cadichon.
At the beginning of the story, Cadichon tells how he is treated on the farm: Cadichon does this, Cadichon carries this, Cadichon carries that, Cadichon here and there, always working without ever stopping, without a smile or even a bit of caress on the muzzle.
Cadichon went away from that farm.

Alone in the woods… it was a bit too rough – and here is our donkey on an adventure, looking for the ” good family “.

He tried several – sometimes when you were nice to him, he could stay for a while.
And there he was better than useful – he was a very smart donkey, who saved little girls like you, you make a pancake batter – in short, he did it almost without thinking about it, of course.

But – there’s bound to be a but in stories, especially in children’s stories – but Cadichon was horribly resentful. One misplaced word, and wham, it was over, finished, he was gone without even thinking of turning around.
Add to that the fact that he was a very mocking donkey and you had the whole picture of a little donkey, it’s true very intelligent, it’s true very strong, but also of a terrible temperament, who loved to make fun of others and couldn’t stand being made fun of him.
As for admitting that he had made a mistake – it was almost beyond his strength.

I won’t tell you the end – even though I know you are all over 4 years old and I won’t spoil anything by telling you the end of a story that isn’t your age.

But the end, you will come to discover it with the little kids around you, if miracles ever happen, the theatres to relive and the show companies for young children to sew again the puppets adapted to this story.

In the meantime the donkeys are on the roads, driven by other donkeys, and it doesn’t make for such a cheerful show – a truck on the horizon? quickly, let’s pass! the others? what others? we have to watch the others?

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Featured Image : The Donkey Driver – by August Macke – 1914