Letter to a friend
from Jean Devos
Paris, January 2003. Letter to a Japanese friend: My dear Yaka-san,
The seven scraggy cows, and the seven fat cows. This story was a dream of an Egyptian Pharaoh. He announced to his people that seven years of dearth would follow the past seven years of bounty. The lesson of this proverb seems to have been forgotten in our western world, at least in our submarine cable community. I now suddenly realised that you Japanese, still, rightly, have kept this wisdom in your behaviour. When the good times are there you remain prepared for the times of “scraggy cow.” You know by experience that nothing is granted, nothing is for sure or forever; the trees never grow up to the sky. Earthquake or storm can destroy your rice field, your house, and your community. This can happen to you anytime. Just be prepared.
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