Today’s Thinking Out Loud reflection is on Aesop’s Fable, The Fox and the Lion. Aesop’s Fables is available for free download here.
The Fable
“A Fox who had never seen a Lion one day met one, and was so
terrified at the sight of him that he was ready to die with fear.
After a time he met him again, and was still rather frightened, but
not nearly so much as he had been when he met him first. But when
he saw him for the third time he was so far from being afraid that
he went up to him and began to talk to him as if he had known him
all his life.”
Note: Our parents, neighbors, culture, and friends often unknowingly pass on biases to us. We learn early on to fear, dislike, or even hate those who are different from us. They may worship differently, they may talk differently, they may have a different skin color. The list goes on, we learned that being different from us is dangerous. If we have courage, we dare to move into a space that allows us to enter a dialogue with those who are different from us. If we’re patient we learn that most differences are superficialities. We learn that we share similar human experiences. We discover we desire the same things. Those who remain blinded by their biases miss out on beauty of our world and the wonderful gifts people whom we initially viewed as different from us bring to us.