LeSSon 2

THE BALLAD OF JOHN HENRY (Traditional American Tale)

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Can you imagine a future in which machines would be the actors? What would we do?

Many years ago the railroad linking the East and the West of the United States was built. Thousands of men drilled mountains, nailed boards and rails, tirelessly ripped out rocks over thousand of miles, in the middle of nowhere. It was really hard work. 

But there was one man who stood out because of his great strength: John Henry, a corpulent black man who never lost his spirit or his smile. His bosses and his companions admired him.

One day the railway company bought machines capable of doing the work of men. John Henry didn´t like this at all, and said that he would challenge the machine. 

One very hot morning John and a drill started cutting through a mountain as fast as possible. All the workers, open-mouthed, watched John, who drilled and drilled without any rest. Meanwhile, the machine seemed to swallow up the rocks. For two, five, seven hours... man and machine competed inside the mountain. 

Some workers bet on John, others on the machine. Until there was a heavy puffing and John appeared full of dust and sweat. He had done it! He had beat the machine! Multitudinous applause echoed in the mountains.

And right at that moment John fell down dead.

"If you can´t beat your enemy, join him", it´s said. Maybe that´s what we have to do with the machines.