Okay so the relevance part is a reflection of how the old man in the story, while wise and experienced, is not helping the young man who wants to go out and do things. Rather than help the young man learn how to help others, survive adventures or give him alternatives, he just gives a bunch of warnings. That's not helping, that's discouraging.
One day in a small village a young man get's it into his head that he wants to become a hero, go on adventures and do many great deeds, but he doesn't have any experience in being a hero, going on adventures or doing great deeds. So, he goes to the village elder, a wise old man who is honored as a hero who went on many adventures and did quite a sum of great deeds in his day. Seemed like a good place to go for help.
Respectfully the young man enters the house of the elder, explains his dreams and waits patiently for an answer, his eyes gleaming with enthusiasm and idealism. After a few moments the elder rubbed his chin. After a few more moments muttered to himself. Patiently the young man waited, knowing the value of the venerable elder's wisdom to be well worth the wait.
Finally the old man's raspy voice declares, "Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and good with ketchup." (Yes, they had ketchup.)
The boy blinks. Dragons are very formidable, so that made sense. He wouldn't be tangling with dragons any time soon. "What about evil wizards?" There were a few in the near-by kingdoms causing problems, so that wouldn't require too much traveling.
"Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger."
That doesn't sound so good. If they would get mad and out-wit him easily, that would be a really hard fight to win. Before he knew what was going on he'd probably be trapped. Wizards wouldn't be his first target. "Giants are dull witted."
"Do not meddle in the affairs of giants, for art small and make good bread."
He'd heard about some of the giants making bread from powdered bones. Eeeehh, not his preferred way to go. "Witches are smaller, and don't do as much as the wizards."
"Do not meddle in the affairs of witches, for they have brews and many spells to cast."
Out classed in offensive capabilities, so hmmm... The young man thought for a while. It seemed like all the adventures that would be the most rewarding were too dangerous, so, "There are those raiders who've been giving us trouble from time to time." No magic, just normal humans, raiders could be his ticket.
"Do not meddle in the affairs of raiders, for they are many and thou art one."
That could be really bad. Outnumbered would make for a bad fight. Well, uh, what's left? "How about saving a maiden?"
"Do not meddle in the affairs of maidens, for they slap hard and have many strings attached."
Discouraged and disheartened the young man gets up and walks out. What would he do? Perhaps he'd just take a job in town. He'd have job security ...
The elder reflects on the discussion and congratulates himself on informing another of the perils of adventuring. Now he could make informed decisions.
Needless to say, this is what many come across when they really intend to do great things, like they were told as a child they could do. While the information might be helpful, that's not all that is needed. Several times the elder could have given advice for dealing with the problems. He could have told the young man where to go to gain allies and skills. Yet, this is the standard way of things. It takes less effort, and gives fewer results.
That and a particularly irritating idea is a part of this approach. The idea is that small odds of doing it means you won't be the one. Small odds means that there are a few people that can. Not everybody will fail because of small odds, so it isn't good advice to tell everybody that they will fail.
Have fun, spread the word and tell me what you think,
Igen Oukan
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