The moshal about the father and son is beautiful and maybe a good answer to my question, so I hate to offer a different interpretation, maybe consider it an “additional insight”:
Maybe a working person is _actually_ taking care of the Father’s house, while a learning person is reading Father’s instructions on how to take care of the house. Hope this is not misconstrued as an “attack on learning”. In my defense, I am not vaguely recalling maybe a similar Sephardi moshal: where Balabos gave instructions to his servant what to do while he is on the trip and to review instructions daily. On his return, everything was ruined but the servant cheerfully responded that he faithfully reviewed instructions “every morning and every evening”.