capriuni | Update: When Google Fails, your Friends are FTW! *\o/* (Reply)

[Breaking News: The "Folk Process" traced and documented! "Old Aesop Tale" a first or second generation Hybrid! Is this as big as documented proof of evolution? Maybe!]

trouble traced one parent: The Blind Man and the Lame Man.

pedanther traced the other: The Man, His Son, and His Donkey.

Both stories were on the same site (i.e. a Web version of a single book): Aesop's Fables, by J. (Jenny) H. Stickney, originally published in 1915. There are only 21 stories listed between the one and the other -- so, in a paper-printed book, less than a dozen pages between them.

My mother was born in 1934. I bet Aesop's Fables was on her family bookshelf -- or perhaps even more likely, the local library (Schoolhouse or public) -- and mother, in her youth, wolfed down several stories in one sitting, the way you do, when the stories are short and witty and wry.

Years later, when I came along, she remembered both stories, but her memory mushed them together, and she couldn't go back to check the source.

Hee! Bonus glimpse into my mother's childhood! *\o/*

So. When I was growing up, my mother would often say: "Here we are, the Lame leading the blind!" And a few times, she'd tell the whole story behind the phrase, to explain why it was funny. But I never did get a clear notion of where it came from.

So I've searched Google a few times, looking for the source (can't ask Mom, she died 20 years ago).

And each time, Google tells me I don't mean "The lame leading the blind," no, no. Of course not. I mean "The Blind leading the blind," and it leads me to a Biblical parable about the dangers of trusting sinners to lead you out of sin, or something, and it's nothing at all like the running joke in our family.

And then, just now, I did another search And Lo! And Behold! "The lame and the blind" shows up in several hits on the first page.

One of them is on Yahoo! Answers, and it's someone saying that English is not his first language, but he heard the line about the Lame leading the blind in a song, and he wants to know what it means.

And both answerers say: "You don't mean "the lame leading the blind" you mean: "the blind leading the blind" -- and the question is from nine months ago, and is now closed. So I can't answer, and say: "No! I know what saying you mean! My mother used to tell this story all the time; but I don't know where it's from!"

So I asked my first question there, and reopened it.

And this is what I wrote:

Story of "The lame leading the blind" (or vice versa) Parable, or fable?

(quote) This is a parable that became something of a family catchphrase; I learned it through my mother, and, growing up, I got the impression it's a Biblical parable. But maybe it's from another source -- Aesop (or other fable), perhaps?

This is the story my mother told to explain the phrase:

There was a blind man and a lame man, and they had but one donkey between them. At first, because the lame man could see and the blind man could not, they decided between them that the blind should ride, and the lame man would lead the donkey by the halter. All went well until they met a stranger on the road. Now, the stranger could see that the lame man was having trouble walking, and the blind man *appeared* to be healthy, so the stranger chided the blind man for making the lame walk when it was so difficult for him.

So the blind man and the lame man decided to switch places. And again, all went well until they met another stranger, who chided the lame man for making the blind man lead, so again, they switched places ... to infinity [Yahoo just wouldn't except 'ad infinitum' as real words, so I had to go with the English translation].

The moral being that it is best to look to yourself to find your own best way through the world, and not let others who don't know the full situation sway you with well-meaning but bad advice.

I know the parable of "The BLIND leading the blind" is more common. But I know this story my mother told was definitely about the lame and the blind.

Might it be an Aesop (or other) fable, instead of a Biblical parable? (unquote)

I only have 4 days for the question to be open to answers. I do not hold out much hope.

But I still know it's a real thing, and not just inside my family.

EDIT -- one answer did come through while I was typing this. All the person said was: I don't recognize it from the Bible.

(sigh).