–An Aeshop’s Fable–
Once a Man and a Lion travelled together through the forest.
They soon began to boast of their respective superiority to each other in strength and prowess.
As they were disputing, they passed a statue carved in stone, which displayed “a Lion strangled by a Man”.
The traveller pointed to it and said: “See there! How strong we are and how we prevail over even the king of beasts.”
The Lion replied: “This statue was made by one of you Men. If we Lions knew how to erect statues, you would see the Man placed under the paw of the Lion.”
THE MORAL OF THE STORY:
One story is good, till another is told.
Stories change, perspectives change and that is how we evolve. Be it personal or collective, stories are inherently fluid.
A story becomes new each time it gets the attention, comprehension and perspective of the reader or the listener. The same story changes with each new reader or listener .
But even the reader or listener is fluid. A person can have different perspectives towards the same story at different stages of life.
Our life stories too change. Stories of HATE turn to stories of EMPATHY. Stories of ANGER turn to stories of HUMOUR. Stories of PAIN turn to stories of FREEDOM. Stories of FEAR turn to stories of RESILIENCE.
All folktales, myths and ancient metaphors carry this characteristic of fluidity. They have always told us it is in this fluidity that we can find the secret to survive and evolve.