Here is a fable I made up, to help you learn about family mistakes: 

There was a man who lived on the Equator. His name was Adika. 

Adika lived on the island of Borneo, Indonesia. 

He wanted to see the North Pole, a place he heard about, with snow, 

where he couldn’t sweat and would need a big coat to stay warm.  

He owned a little plot of land with red dirt. 

While cultivating his garden one day, he found the beginning of a vein of valuable minerals, that made him well-to-do. 

He moved his family into town and opened a business, and did well. 

But he still wanted to see the North Pole, and shiver in the cold. So, he hired a plane and pilot to take him due east until they found the North Pole. The pilot protested, but Adika insisted they fly due east. 

He though the North pole would be where the sun came up, because the air was cooler where the sun came up

than it was where the sun went down. So he thought the North Pole would be toward the rising sun. 

The pilot obeyed. They flew 24, 900 miles and never saw any snow or polar bears. Adika was so disappointed. 

He stayed home and lived out his life in Borneo. Adika passed away ten years later. 

At the funeral, his daughter Eka, also decided to try again to find the North pole, to honor her father. 

She found the pilot that had flown her father East-bound, around the Equator. 

She hired him, but with a new plan; they would do the exact opposite of what her father had done. 

Her father went due East, but did not find the North Pole. 

She and the pilot would fly due West.  Surely, doing the opposite of what her father had done, would take her to the North Pole.

Again, the pilot protested and brought out his maps. Eka would not change her mind. 

Both Eka and her dad were smart, but were stubborn in certain ways that were not helpful. 

So, they flew West until they got back to Borneo, never seeing an igloo or a polar bear. 

Eka did the exact opposite of her father, Adika, but she also failed, and this is the moral of this story: 

Just because we know what is wrong, doesn’t mean we know what is right. 

And doing what seems to be opposite of the wrong way, may just be another wrong way. 

There are many ways to do family life incorrectly, but only a few ways to do family life correctly. 

Study life, to learn the correct way to be a family.

Eric J. Rose 

middlegrademysteries.com 

photo: bitgab.com