Image by Est Bleu2007 Flickr.Com Creative Commons
I heard this story once but I have no idea who it’s by, I like it and wanted to post my version of it here…
Once upon a time there was a hunter who was out on a hunt. His job was to gather food and bring it back to share with the rest of his tribe. So he went out into the woods every day and he explored and he explored and he explored but he wasn’t a very good hunter, he often failed and had to return home at the end of the day empty handed.
He wanted desperately to be a better hunter because it was humiliating to return home each day with nothing to contribute. His mother would berate him, his father would stare at him with a look of disappointment and he would feel totally powerless and ashamed for letting them down.
One day the hunter was out in the woods and he was thinking about how all of the people in his tribe were so disappointed in him, how they’re not going to let him stay in the tribe, how he’s not really any good as a hunter, how he’s not really any good at anything and everything like that but then… suddenly… as he came to a clearing, he saw a unicorn that was wounded.
Instantly, his mood switched from one of unhappiness and depression to one of joy and excitement. He thought to himself “Oh, lucky me, I’ve got this wounded animal here, I can spear it and I can bring it back to the tribe and everyone will cheer for me and love me and praise me for catching a unicorn, a pure wonderful unicorn. They’re going to think so highly of me because I’m going to be able to feed the whole tribe. I’m going to be able to show off!”
But then his excitement turned into sadness. He started to feel sorry for the unicorn because he saw it just laying there. It was twitching and moving and it needed sustinance. The hunter was mesmerised and caught in a trance. He began to sit down and just watch the unicorn as it was dying.
All of the sudden, the king of the jungle, the lion came through the other side of the clearing, the hunter was overcome with fear and his first instinct was to flee. He couldn’t kill the lion because he was too afraid, the lion was too strong, too powerful, the lion would fight back, it would kill him and eat him up without any trouble.
So the hunter just froze because he could sense the amazing power of the beast approaching him. He didn’t know what to do so he decided to be really really still and quiet and just watch and with amazement he saw that the lion carried food in his mouth. The lion brought the food right up to the unicorn and he dropped it and then he walked away.
The hunter was amazed by this, I mean, both the lion and the unicorn had long been thought to be deadly enemies, both regarded as king of the beasts, he had never seen or even imagined that this type of interaction would take place before. So he decided to spend the night and watch. Again, the next day, the same thing happened and he watched as this unicorn became stronger and stronger and stronger until one morning he woke up and the unicorn was gone.
The hunter was amazed by what he saw and he thought “I want to be like that unicorn, that was awesome!” He thought “That was, that was, that was… the universe brings to those that are needy.” And so he proclaimed “I’m going to do what that unicorn did!” And so he lay there… nothing happened… days went by… weeks went by… until the hunter became so malnutricious that he found that when he tried to move that he couldn’t. He felt an unbelievable sense of desperation and hopelessness. He was about on the verge of passing out when he heard a noise and he thought to himself “This is it, the lion has come” and he opened his eyes and there was… the unicorn.
And so, the hunter said to the unicorn “I don’t get it? What happened? Where is the lion? I modelled you as what the universe brought to you”. The unicorn just looked at the hunter, he laughed and he said “You silly fool! If you wanted to model anyone, you should have modelled the lion!”
Have you ever wished and hoped and prayed for someone to come along and save you from all of your problems?
Have you ever thought “What can I gain?” Instead of “What can I give?”
Have you ever behaved like the unicorn when really you should have behaved like the lion?
The moral of the story was not “The universe gives to those in need” as the hunter thought it was but rather “If you want to copy others, why not copy the best that they have to offer?”
The world can only take so many unicorns but there is always room for more lions. So which would you rather? Would you rather be in a room full of unicorns or a room full of lions?