While travelling for business I’ve noticed that, in every office I’ve visited, someone invariably has a low-resolution photocopy of a drawing depicting a stork in the process of eating a frog. Underneath is a caption that says “Never Give Up!” or something to that effect. What does the picture have to do with the caption and what is the source for it? I personally don’t find a stork eating a frog very inspirational or motivational but hey, I’m not working in a cubicle in BFE.
I feel a simulpost about to happen.
The frog has it’s “hands” around the stork’s throat. Hence, the stork cannot swallow the frog.
They musta been REALLY low-resolution copies if you couldn’t see the frogs ‘hands’ clenched firmly around the stork’s neck. The caption refers, of course, to the frog, not the stork.
Thanks. They were always poor copies and I didn’t stare at it too long as I was usually on business.
That’s considered inspirational?
I think it might be an extension of the old story “The Frogs Who Wanted a King.”
It might have even been on of Aesop’s, but I can’t verify that.
Anyway, here’s the story:
The frogs decided they needed a king.
Zeus send them a log (I think).
Well, the frogs weren’t happy, because the log didn’t do anything. It just sat there.
They complained loudly.
So Zeus then sent them a stork to be king.
The stork did not just “sit and do nothing.”
You see where that’s headed.
Anyway, I’ve always thought the frog/stork poster had its origins in that fable.
The frogs name is Winston Churchill
Well, depends on your source of inspiration. The point is that even though the frog was caught and was in the process of being eaten, it didn’t give up and go down quietly, it found a way to fight back. Sort of like the old saw about getting swallowed whole, so you rip your way out from the inside. Or something like that.
The “inspiration” is to search for a way out of the problem, no matter how bad it looks.
Or you can just give up and be eaten.
Do not go gently into that good night.
Rage, rage agaisnt the dying of the light.
So to speak. 
JB
Lex Non Favet Delicatorum Votis
Another over-photocopied cartoon I’ve seen is the duck with a sledgehammer about to smash a computer. The caption reads, “Hit any key to continue”.
Wrong thinking is punished, right thinking is just as swiftly rewarded. You’ll find it an effective combination.
All that may have great his-stork value, but the moral of the story is:
If you still have a leg to stand on, don’t get a frog in your throat.
Or maybe it’s:
Don’t croak before the stork delivers you or you’ll be billstorn.
Ray (Well, OK, I never saw the poster.)
I still think the “if I’m going out I’m taking you with me” message is more postal than inspirational.