Me and the child were larking about on the sofa last night—“Close your eyes!” she pleads, “I promise I won't…” do x, y or z to me, and this prompted a telling of the scorpion and the frog parable.
If you haven't heard it, it goes like this:
A scorpion wants to cross the river but can't swim. It asks a frog to take it over, on its back. The frog replies,
“No way – you'll sting me and I'll die!” to which the scorpion responds,
“Don't be daft, why would I do that?! I'll drown, if you die!”
The frog thinks about this, sees the logic, and agrees.
Half way across, the scorpion stings the frog nonetheless, and as they're both sinking, the frog asks the scorpion why it did this, to which the dying scorpion replies,
“I couldn't help it. It's in my nature.”
🦂 🐸 💦 🪦
It's been a long time since I've recalled that, and as I was telling it to my daughter, I was half wondering if there was something more to it than this; whether I'd forgotten part of it, because it all just sounded a bit bleak, really.
What are we supposed to learn from that?!
(Incidentally, some form of this parable has apparently been shared among humans from as early as 200BC, so it's got legs!)
On the surface of things, it sounds to be a warning of sorts, i.e. some people will not respond to logic and reason, but are instead driven entirely by their base instincts, even if it's to their own detriment.
[Checks Twitter… umm, Yep.]
😂
Reactive vs. Responsive
But before the Reader Ego Construct 📦 starts getting all holier-than-thou, what if there's a deeper meaning to it – one that's kept this fable alive for centuries?
What if we all have ‘scorpion nature’ within us: our conditioned beliefs / the content of our Thought Systems / ego?
And we can be unconscious of this, going through life ‘stinging’ others, innocently enough, never really questioning our ‘nature’ and feeling like we don't have a choice as to how we behave. Reacting.
Or we can at the very least be aware of how ego will run the show if it goes unquestioned or unchecked.
It is perfectly possible to see that all our behaviours lie downstream of our relationship to thought, i.e. how attached we are to it in each given moment, and how beholden to ego's needs we are.
Knowing this is half the battle, for while we may not get to choose our behaviours, just being aware that at some point in the process options are on the table… allows the mind-body to express those different options, through the medium of wisdom and common sense. Responding.
Somewhere, there's a scorpion sat on a frog's back, not stinging it.
Not because it knuckled down and overcame the urge, but because it didn't make sense for the urge to manifest like that in the first place.
💟
Giles
p.s. A trait that would likely be selected for, from an evolutionary perspective. So if you're reading this, well done you for evolving our species! 😉😆
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Giles P Croft
Don't take my word for it – get your own evidence!