Mulla Nasruddin: A Walker Talk

Mulla Nasruddin: A Walker Talk

Mulla Nasruddin was not afraid to look foolish if it meant he could teach us something.  Mulla Nasruddin—so smart he's dumb, and so dumb he's smart.  The wise fool, juggling the concepts of the possible and the impossible.  Just when you think he does or doesn't mean it, he makes or doesn't make it mean even more.  Sometimes with a smile on his face, sometimes with a very serious expression indeed.  They say he really lived, seven centuries ago, in western or central Turkey. He and Rumi would have been approximate contemporaries.  Trouble is, there are Mulla Nasruddin stories from the 8th century on.  Our boy gets around, often riding his donkey backwards, even as his face is turned toward us, kindly providing guidance.  Even when he says nothing, he makes nothing speak through him.  For example, his tomb has a locked gate before it, yet there is no fence around it.  Mulla Nasruddin lets us figure it out for ourselves.