wolves of joy

A prominent metaphor in the graduation speech delivered by the principal of my daughter's elementary school today had to do with wolves. According to my daughter's principal (who claimed this was an old Cherokee story, though I have my doubts about that part as she pretty much claims everything is an old Cherokee story), we each have two wolves in us: a wolf of pain and a wolf of joy. The wolf of pain is angry, jealous, and greedy, and full of regret and sorrow.

And the wolf of joy isn't, obviously! 'Cause it's way, way better to be a wolf of joy than a wolf of pain.

Duh. WELL okay....(she strains her memory, despite the pain it causes her necrotic brain) the wolf of (what was it....joy?) feeds on joy, love, kindness, and some other stuff we can't remember right now, whereas the wolf of pain, you know, pretty much DOESN'T. And therein lies the rub, but of course that's a quote from a different era, a different genre, and blah blah.

Anyway, I can't help but notice that call them what you like, these are Dante's wolves, the ones from The Inferno, although of course Dante treated them rather more poetically than my daughter's principal. Dante's wolves are the BEST.

As for my dad, he says he's going to nurture his inner wolf with wolf kibble.