The Pig in the Hole (*)

(*) The original story, as I heard it on the radio, was of a cow. I substituted the Pig, and since I do not remember the exact wordings, nor who was the author, I retold it in my own words. If anyone knows to whom the copyright belongs to, please let me know. Thank you!

The story(*) is told of a Pig who fell into tough times -- in fact, the poor Pig fell into a deep abandoned well. The farmer passed by and thought hard how he might recover his Pig from this predicament. At last, considering all alternatives, and the fact that the Pig was now past its prime and the well was not useful anymore, he decided that the most humane thing to do in this situation would be to bury the Pig and fill up the abandoned well at the same time. In this manner, the Pig would be quickly put out of its misery instead of facing a slow painful death, and the well would not be a danger to animals and humans alike in the future. Having made up his mind, the farmer called his neighbors for help, and soon a number of them were shoveling earth into the well.

The poor Pig was frantic. It had at first thought that its master would save it, and had kept its calm. Its master's voice allowed it to stay composed. But now, it was panicking and crashing against the old walls of the well, cutting its flesh and opening up sore wounds. It could understand neither the hopelessness of the situation nor the difficult decision that its master had taken. The men at the surface did not even once looked into the well. They were tough farmers and understood the situation all too well. They shoveled hard and fast because they had to return to their own chores.

Down in the well, the poor Pig finally understood how hopeless it all was, and stopped struggling. It bent its neck and settled down for what fate had decided to deal it all of a sudden on this otherwise very normal day. The night was coming fast and it was getting cold. Our Pig shivered and as it did so, the earth fell from its shoulders and body to the ground. Suddenly, the Pig realized the way to escape! It stood up resolutely, and everytime a shovel of earth hit its back, it shook the earth off and stepped on top of it. Soon, as you have probably guessed by now, the Pig shook and stepped its way (bruised, but triumphant,) out of the well, to the utter astonishment of the farmers! The very earth that was meant to bury it became its means of escape.

What is the moral of the story? Some would say, it is to turn lemons into lemonade, and others that you should never give up. This story has a simple message for us: no matter how desperate a situation might look on the surface to others, deep down we know that we should...
Never, Never, Never give up!