Summer Camp: The Parakeet’s Promise
Circle Round - WBUR
A selfish farmer learns generosity after a parakeet explains how it uses stolen millet to keep promises to its family and community. The story teaches that giving enriches both giver and receiver.
Key takeaways
- Generosity strengthens relationships
Transcript preview
W-B-U-R Podcast. Boston. Greetings listeners, welcome back to Circle Round Summer Camp. I'm your camp counselor, Erica Henningson. This season, we are revisiting some of our best stories about life in the great outdoors. And do you know who really enjoys being outside? friends the birds who every day get to spread their wings and soar to new places and new people. Today's episode is called The Parakeets Promise and in it we'll hear wisdom from one of those friends, wisdom that may just change how you see the world. So circle around everyone for the Parakeets Promise. Maybe you gave them some help or some kindness. When we give to others, they're not the only ones who benefit. Showing generosity can strengthen our relationships and make us feel more happy and positive. We're about to meet a character who believes that being generous is for the birds, until she meets an actual bird who helps her see things in a whole new light. I'm Rebecca Sheer and welcome to Circle Round where story time happens all the time. Today our story is called The Parakeets Promise. Versions of this folk tale come from the Southeast Asian country of India. Some really great people came together to bring you our story, including Broadway stars Lorna Courtney and Shoba Narayan. and Juliet at the Stephen Sondheim Theater. And Shoburn Ryan is currently starring in the Broadway production of Aladdin at the New Amsterdam Theater. So circle around everyone. For the Parakeets Promise. who spent her days hurting her sheep milking her goats and tending her field of millet, small seed-like grains that grow on tall grassy plants. The farmer's field was so lush and fertile that it produced far more millet than she actually needed. Yet instead of giving her extra millet to hungry families in the village say, or sharing it with weary travelers who came wandering past her big roomy farmhouse, the farmer kept it all to herself. This is my millet and I may do with it as I choose and what I choose is to keep it all for me. Well early one morning hours before the farmer usually got out of bed she was startled awake by an unusual sound outside her window. What is all that commotion? the millit field. The farmer threw on her work clothes and hurried outside. When she reached the millit field, she discovered it was swarming with hundreds upon hundreds of birds. Parakeets, to be exact, flittering, twittering parakeets with sleek feathers as green as an unripe banana and curved beaks as red as the setting sun. My goodness, where did all of these parakeets come from? And look at them, they're gobbling up my millet. I have to stop them. The farmer yanked off her hat and waved it around as she zigged and zagged up and down the field. Hey, you pesky birds, that's my millet you're devouring! Get out of here! Go! Go! The air erupted with a great flapping and fluttering as hundreds of alarmed parakeets scrambled to take wing. Sue! Find someone else's field to plunder! Once it seemed like all the parakeets were gone, the farmer gazed at her millet field, or what was left of it anyway. Many of the plants were trampled, and the ground was littered with millet grains that the birds had either spit out or dropped in their haste to leave. Well, those pesky parakeets left a mess. But at least they're gone. Now I can finally get on with the rest of the things I need to... Oh no! Out of the corner of her eye, the farmer saw something that made her heart drop. It was as green as an unripe banana with a curved beak as red as the setting sun, and it was filling that curved beak with grain after grain of millet. Ah! Looks like I spoke too soon. One of those pesky perecates is still here. here and it's loading up on even more millet. Hey, Bird, that's my millet, not