Story of the hare and tortoise
I am sure most if not all have heard of the story of the hare and tortoise. This story is simple yet teaches us important values. I shall give a twist to the story to examine the values we can learn from it.
Once upon a time there lived in Animal Land two kinds of animals, the hare and tortoise. The hare population has long been looking down on the tortoise population. In addition to that, the hare population has been bullying the tortoise population slowly taking up the tortoise population's territory. One day, the hare population got together for a meeting to discuss of a plan to get rid of the tortoise population from Animal Land for good.
The hares have long known the tortoises to be slower animals than them. So, the hares decided to use their advantage of being the faster animal to challenge the tortoises to a race that will decide who gets to stay in Animal Land. The animal who win the race will get to stay in Animal Land while the other animal has to leave. Thus, a race challenge was issued from the hares to the tortoises. Each of the animals, hares and tortoises will select their best runners to compete in this race which will determine who gets to stay in Animal Land for good.
The tortoises after receiving news of the race challenge, got together to discuss things. Many of the tortoises disagree to taking part in the race. Most were saying, "We have always been known to be much slower than the hares and taking part in this race will only mean losing it and getting ourselves kicked out of the land." There were others who expressed their concerns, "If we do not take part in this race, we will be laughed at by the hares and further looked down and bullied by them." One of the tortoise finally stood up and said, "I will take part in the race. I may not be the fastest among all of you. But, I know the hares too well that they are proud and lazy creatures, lacking discipline. Even if they can run fast, we may not lose the race if we are humble and disciplined enough to persevere through the race."
After much reluctance, the tortoises finally agreed among themselves to take part in this race. On the race day, many hares came to support their best runner they have chosen. The hares kept their heads high praising their best runner that he will surely win the race without much effort. Many tortoises also came to support the tortoise runner who had volunteered to take part in this race. However, they were mostly silent among themselves and were worried, lacking confidence in their runner.
The race started. The hare runner ran as fast as he could. As he was running, he kept thinking to himself that this slow tortoise is so slow that even when he finishes the race, the tortoise may not even complete a quarter of the race. When the hare had completed half of the race, he happened to see a big tree by the track and took a rest. He sat down thinking, "This slow tortoise will never catch up with me. He is just so slow. Since I have already ran half of the race and is tired, I shall take a short nap under this nice big tree while waiting for that slow coach to catch up with me. Anyway, when I wake up, he will still be far behind me."
As the hare took a nap under the tree, the tortoise was still persevering on. He had only one thought in mind, and that is to win the race and save his people. He understood that he had a heavy responsibility on his shoulders and so he pressed on with this discipline to ignore the tiredness he was facing while pushing ahead with steady steps.
Eventually, the tortoise came to the big tree and saw that the hare was still sleeping. The tortoise continued going forward. Despite being tempted to take a rest just as what the hare had done, he still chose to discipline himself to press on. After sometime, the tortoise was nearing the finishing line. The hare had now woken up and found that he had been sleeping for a very long time. He started to panick and ran forward as fast as he could. However, just when the hare finally saw the tortoise from a distance, the tortoise had just finished the race.
The hare was angry and disappointed with losing the race. The other hares around kept their heads down and were sad that they had to leave Animal Land for good now that they had lost the race. At that instant, the tortoise runner said to the hares, "I was lucky enough to win the race because your runner took a nap and gave me this chance to win. Otherwise, I was certainly not able to win. We had been bullied by you people for long. Why can't we be at peace with each other? If we can allow you hares to stay with us in Animal Land, can we be good neighbours with each other for good?" The tortoises around also agreed to let the hares stay with them in Animal Land for good and will not chase them out because they had lost the race. As such, the hares continued to stay in Animal Land with the tortoises and their relationships got better with each passing day.
The hares also learnt from the tortoises the values of being disciplined, humble and forgiving. One day after the race, the hare runner visited the tortoise runner and said, "Let's have another friendly race. This time I will not be proud and lazy but will be humble and disciplined to persevere to complete the race." However, the tortoise runner laughed out loud exclaiming, "I took part in the race last time precisely because I knew I will have a good chance to win the race since you were proud and lazy once. Now, with your determination and good values of humility, discipline and perseverance, I will not be stupid enough to compete you for a race. However, we can still run together regularly to keep ourselves fit. I can also take this chance to train myself up to challenge you the next time when you start to become proud and lazy again." At this speech, both the hare and tortoise laughed together and they became the very best friends in Animal Land.
Once upon a time there lived in Animal Land two kinds of animals, the hare and tortoise. The hare population has long been looking down on the tortoise population. In addition to that, the hare population has been bullying the tortoise population slowly taking up the tortoise population's territory. One day, the hare population got together for a meeting to discuss of a plan to get rid of the tortoise population from Animal Land for good.
The hares have long known the tortoises to be slower animals than them. So, the hares decided to use their advantage of being the faster animal to challenge the tortoises to a race that will decide who gets to stay in Animal Land. The animal who win the race will get to stay in Animal Land while the other animal has to leave. Thus, a race challenge was issued from the hares to the tortoises. Each of the animals, hares and tortoises will select their best runners to compete in this race which will determine who gets to stay in Animal Land for good.
The tortoises after receiving news of the race challenge, got together to discuss things. Many of the tortoises disagree to taking part in the race. Most were saying, "We have always been known to be much slower than the hares and taking part in this race will only mean losing it and getting ourselves kicked out of the land." There were others who expressed their concerns, "If we do not take part in this race, we will be laughed at by the hares and further looked down and bullied by them." One of the tortoise finally stood up and said, "I will take part in the race. I may not be the fastest among all of you. But, I know the hares too well that they are proud and lazy creatures, lacking discipline. Even if they can run fast, we may not lose the race if we are humble and disciplined enough to persevere through the race."
After much reluctance, the tortoises finally agreed among themselves to take part in this race. On the race day, many hares came to support their best runner they have chosen. The hares kept their heads high praising their best runner that he will surely win the race without much effort. Many tortoises also came to support the tortoise runner who had volunteered to take part in this race. However, they were mostly silent among themselves and were worried, lacking confidence in their runner.
The race started. The hare runner ran as fast as he could. As he was running, he kept thinking to himself that this slow tortoise is so slow that even when he finishes the race, the tortoise may not even complete a quarter of the race. When the hare had completed half of the race, he happened to see a big tree by the track and took a rest. He sat down thinking, "This slow tortoise will never catch up with me. He is just so slow. Since I have already ran half of the race and is tired, I shall take a short nap under this nice big tree while waiting for that slow coach to catch up with me. Anyway, when I wake up, he will still be far behind me."
As the hare took a nap under the tree, the tortoise was still persevering on. He had only one thought in mind, and that is to win the race and save his people. He understood that he had a heavy responsibility on his shoulders and so he pressed on with this discipline to ignore the tiredness he was facing while pushing ahead with steady steps.
Eventually, the tortoise came to the big tree and saw that the hare was still sleeping. The tortoise continued going forward. Despite being tempted to take a rest just as what the hare had done, he still chose to discipline himself to press on. After sometime, the tortoise was nearing the finishing line. The hare had now woken up and found that he had been sleeping for a very long time. He started to panick and ran forward as fast as he could. However, just when the hare finally saw the tortoise from a distance, the tortoise had just finished the race.
The hare was angry and disappointed with losing the race. The other hares around kept their heads down and were sad that they had to leave Animal Land for good now that they had lost the race. At that instant, the tortoise runner said to the hares, "I was lucky enough to win the race because your runner took a nap and gave me this chance to win. Otherwise, I was certainly not able to win. We had been bullied by you people for long. Why can't we be at peace with each other? If we can allow you hares to stay with us in Animal Land, can we be good neighbours with each other for good?" The tortoises around also agreed to let the hares stay with them in Animal Land for good and will not chase them out because they had lost the race. As such, the hares continued to stay in Animal Land with the tortoises and their relationships got better with each passing day.
The hares also learnt from the tortoises the values of being disciplined, humble and forgiving. One day after the race, the hare runner visited the tortoise runner and said, "Let's have another friendly race. This time I will not be proud and lazy but will be humble and disciplined to persevere to complete the race." However, the tortoise runner laughed out loud exclaiming, "I took part in the race last time precisely because I knew I will have a good chance to win the race since you were proud and lazy once. Now, with your determination and good values of humility, discipline and perseverance, I will not be stupid enough to compete you for a race. However, we can still run together regularly to keep ourselves fit. I can also take this chance to train myself up to challenge you the next time when you start to become proud and lazy again." At this speech, both the hare and tortoise laughed together and they became the very best friends in Animal Land.
No comments:
Post a Comment