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| Once upon a time there was a lamb who being very inquisitive (undoubtedly from some flaw in his character for otherwise he looked no different than any other lambs born that spring) wanted to know why is it that the sheep are always being killed by wolves and never the other way around. Perhaps he felt there was something wrong with it, but most probably he was just fond of asking the perplexing questions nobody had asked before him. Yet despite his persistence, the answers he was getting, if any, were invariably the same. "That's the way things are," he was told again and again by the few sheep polite enough to interrupt their non-stop grazing to talk to the meddling Lamb. "Nobody ever questioned it and you shouldn't either. Don't be smart. Remember when you grow up, provided of course the wolves will not kill you before that, which is by no means certain, you will be just another sheep, like the rest of us". But this particular lamb, quite to the contrary, wasn't, unlike the rest of his flock, satisfied with such a response (as I have said before he must have had some defect in his personality). Not willing to accept the lambs' fate of being eaten by wolves as something inevitable, he resolved to get his answer and if necessary straight from the wolf's mouth, so to speak. As the killers, he figured out, they must know better. And being not only persistent but impatient too (yet another trait separating him from his fellow sheep) Lamb went without delay to look for the wolves. Now it just so happened that soon after he left his flock, Lamb ran into an old toothless wolf who was wandering aimlessly around. Lamb, emboldened by his desire to know, asked him right away the same question, namely, why the wolves always killed the sheep but the sheep never killed the wolves. Fortunately for inquisitive Lamb, old toothless Wolf having lost the ability to kill settled this time for enlightening him. "You see, my dear Lamb", started old toothless Wolf, "unlike you lucky sheep who can eat all kinds of vegetation like grass, leaves, fruits, etc., we wolves can only eat meat. And since you sheep are made of meat we wolves, often against our best principles, have no other choice but to kill you, however repugnant admittedly it is, in order to feed ourselves and survive. You wouldn't want us to die from starvation, would you, my dear friend? "Of course not" replied Lamb, feeling somewhat ashamed especially after old Wolf had shown so much unexpected friendliness toward someone as young and inexperienced as himself. "I just wish that you wolves could be a little bit more like us sheep and be able to live without always depriving somebody else of life". "Oh, I totally agree with you", said old toothless Wolf. "I have to admit when I was young, strong and always hungry, this thought never crossed by mind. But now that I am old, I wish I hadn't spilled as much innocent blood just to survive. I wish there was some other way". "Oh, I've got the idea", cried Lamb suddenly (he was always full of new and exciting ideas nobody wanted to listen to). "What we have to do is to teach the wolves how to eat grass". "Excellent proposition", agreed old Wolf. "And also, for the sake of equality, let's teach the sheep how to eat meat". "A brilliant idea!" exclaimed Lamb. "I will immediately return to my flock to tell them the good news!" "And I will tell exactly the same to my pack", replied old toothless Wolf. Both were immensely delighted to come to such an amicable agreement so quickly and especially to find such a responsive soul-mate in each other. And warmly embracing while parting, exited, and full of hope they went on their way. As soon as he located his flock grazing in its favourite field covered by fresh, succulent grass, Lamb addressed them right away, with all the ardour and impatience of a young discoverer of truth. "My dear brothers", he began, "you must remember the question I was pestering you with before I left. And you know what? I've brought you the answer! It was an exceptional stroke of luck that I met old toothless Wolf who was also searching for it. And both of us came up with the solution which is not only excellent but a very simple one. All we sheep have to do is to learn how to eat meat and then we will be like wolves, and if they choose to kill and to eat us we will do exactly the same to them!" Now the majority of the sheep were completely preoccupied as always with grazing, and paid little attention to what Lamb was saying. Some, however, startled by this unusual proposition, stopped eating altogether. When they recovered from the first shock, screaming and shouting ensued. "You say it was a stroke of luck to meet the old wise wolf!", yelled someone. "You don't even know how lucky you are, you young fool. For if it was a wolf with all his teeth intact you wouldn't be bothering us with this nonsense. You would be in his stomach as sure as this grass is in ours! And if you suddenly became such a great believer in the possibility of wolves' conversion, why don't you go and preach it to them!" "You bet I will", Lamb shouted angrily back. "And I will prove to all of you stupid sheep that I'm right and you're wrong." And he left his flock to look for the wolf pack for a second time even more determined than at first. Meanwhile old toothless Wolf didn't get any better reception from his pack, either. Hungry as ever, they were eagerly planning the next hunt and were certainly not in the mood to discuss the guilt associated with killing, and especially this nonsense about not eating meat. "You not only lost your teeth, but your marbles too", they snapped at him. "We like meat and we are not going to deprive ourselves of the pleasure of eating it, even if it requires killing. As a matter of fact, we enjoy the killing even more. So stop bothering us. And if you don't like our ways, which by the way was okay with you when had all your teeth, you'd better go and live with your sheep or else!" And so old toothless Wolf, disappointed and rejected by his own pack and now even fearing for his very life, left in a hurry to find the flock of sheep. But as the fate would have it before they found what they were looking for, Old Wolf and Lamb ran into each other again. Each told about his unhappy encounter with his fellow creatures and after some mutual commiseration they both came to the only sensible decision, to stay together and try to see if they could accomplish themselves what they proposed to the others. I would have loved to tell you that they lived happily ever after, as is customary in such tales, but in truth I don't know, for no-one has seen them since. And so maybe they did or maybe they didn't. Perhaps one day we will find out. But until that day the wolves will be wolves and the sheep, sheep - as depressingly cynical and hopeless as that sounds. Of course there is always a possibility that another inquisitive lamb will be born and in his search for an explanation of the sheep's plight, another old toothless wolf will cross his path. But even if they come up with yet another solution to the perpetual wolves-sheep conflict, I doubt (call me an incorrigible pessimist if you wish) they will find more receptive audiences among their respective kin. Now, at this point one may ask if there is any moral to this story. And the simple answer is there is none. For the moral presupposes the possibility of learning from somebody's else pain how to avoid your own. But since, in reality nobody ever succeeded in this, the assumption must be patently false. And if it is, what is the point of having any moral? |
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