ANECDOTE
I’ll never forget when my college philosophy professor introduced an idea to my class full of 18-year-old kids who had no idea what he was talking about. I’ll paraphrase it here…
“A man is being chased by a tiger.
He’s running for his life, but the tiger keeps getting closer.
The man comes to a cliff, grabs a vine, and starts climbing down,
only to see another hungry tiger pacing below, waiting for him to fall.
The man glances up and sees two mice, one black, one white,
gnawing on the vine.
Just then, the man notices a ripe, red strawberry sticking out of the cliff face.
He reaches out, plucks it, puts it in his mouth, and savors its sweetness.”
End of story.
Huh?! We didn’t get it. This guy was going to die, and he’s eating a strawberry?!
I have some miles under my belt now and have clarity about what this parable means to me. I’m not saying it is right or wrong. I’m just saying this is how I choose to interpret it.
We all have tigers above and below us. They represent the threats and troubles chasing us in our past, present, and future, and we are running for our lives.
Meanwhile, mice are chewing our vine of time.
At the same time, a delicious strawberry is waiting to be noticed & enjoyed NOW.
We can obsess about the threats or troubles… Or, we can savor the strawberry.
Tap back into what’s right with life – and exude it – by coming to your senses.
ACTION
How about you? Are you in your head? Have you gotten swept up in worries, outrage, responsibilities?
Has your productivity and creativity come to a screeching halt?
My question is, does that serve any good purpose?
If not, use your human agency to do an instant attitude/attention adjustment with this exercise.
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