I read a friend’s blog entry the other day and it made me sad. It made me sad because the person in question is sad and I don’t like to see people I know unhappy.
And so this little story came to mind, I can’t remember where I read it.
One day a sheep farmer was returning from the city where he had sold his wares. Along the route he saw a rare sight in the fields behind the road - a hunter had caught a lion. Having never seen a lion close-up he stopped his cart and wandered over to the hunter who was working on the carcass to take his trophies. Suddenly the farmer noticed a rustling in the long grass and cautiously wandered over to look, noticing a tiny lion cub cowering, hungry and frightened.
The cub would surely die out in the wilderness alone, so the farmer decided to take the cub home.
Over the next few months and years, the lion lived with farmer’s flock of sheep. After some initial concern, the sheep took him in and raised him as one of their own. He ate with the sheep, and slept with the sheep. For all purposes he was a sheep himself.
One day the sheep were grazing in a meadow when they took the fancy of a hungry predator - a lion stalked the flock for the longest time, and as one sheep strayed from the group, he pounced and began to chase…
Only to stop in his tracks when he noticed one very oddly behaving lion - baaing and bouncing away like the sheep that surrounded him.
“You!” yelled the hungry lion, “what are you doing?”
“Me?” I’m running away from you with my brothers and sisters…
“Why? They are not your brethren - you are a lion!”
“Of couse I’m not… I’m a sheep… baaa!”
“Come here, to the water’s edge, I will show you…”
Cautiously, the sheeplion approached the lakeshore.
“Now, look…”
Sure enough, the sheeplion now noticed the similarities to the hungry lion. Previously he had noticed his similarities to the sheep - a nose, two ears, eyes, four legs, yet now he saw a majestic jaw, powerful muscles and strong, penetrating eyes… He baaed again.
“No!” said the hungry lion, “don’t baa, roooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrr!”
And so he did, the timid baa was replaced with the powerful, throaty roar of a mature lion.
“That’s better, what are you?” asked the hungry lion.
“I’m a lion! And I’m hungry… where are those sheep?”
I actually added the last line myself. Feel free to delete where applicable, if you, like me prefer happy endings.
