To Farrah

Submitted by Zella (United States), Jul 15, 2008 at 17:13

The woman appeared to be in her 50s and her husband looked like he was much older.

Every time I hear stories about women who get used and abused by men and vice versa, I am reminded of my grandmother's story that probably was handed down from generation to generation about "the woman and the snake." As I have said many times my grandmother was illiterate but she was a Psychologist in her own right. The story goes like this:

One cold, frosty fall morning a woman went walking down by a lake close to her house and she happened to look down and saw a cold, half-frozen snake. The snake looked at her and cried, "Please pretty lady, take me home. I'm cold. I'm freezing to death." The woman took off her coat, wrapped Mr. Snake up and help him closely to her body and carried him home. She laid him by the fireplace and wrapped him in several blankets. Then she went into the kitchen and warmed him some milk and honey and took the food to him. Mr. Snake drank the milk and honey, became drowsy from the warmth of the fire and fell asleep. The woman would go check on him every thirty minutes or so and she'd bend over and stroke his head, smile, and oh, she was so proud of herself for saving this poor snake's life. Several hours later, she bent over to caress the snake and wham... he sank his fangs into her arm and she cried, "How could you do this to me? When you were cold, I took off my coat and covered you with it and I brought you home and laid you by the fire. I gave you fresh warm milk with sweet honey and I have come in often to check on your well being. How could you be so uncaring and bite me?" Mr. Snake looked up at her, smiled and said, "yes, pretty woman, you did all of those nice things for me BUT you knew I was a snake when you took me in."

You know, Farrah, I'm sure many women have heard this same story from their mothers and grandmothers. However, the story has kept me grounded on many occasions. If a person looks like a snake, acts like a snake, and has fangs like a snake, he/she probably is a snake and, yes, in spite of how nice we are.....he/she has no qualms about sinking those fangs in us when we least expect it.

When I was in school, believe it or not, one of the Professors actually told us about this story. Apparently he also heard the story from his grandmother and he shared it with us when we were having a discussion on human behaviors. He also said that an American singer had a #1 hit titled, The Lady and the Snake," some years ago.

Take good care of yourself and be careful....some venemous bites are lethal.

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