The spider and the butterfly
This isn't a Taoist post; it's a post that I'm hoping will better convey the feeling I was struggling with during the last post. (Note the past tense. I don't struggle with things for long; it's much easier to be able to let them go.) It comes from the story of twin brothers with a very different view on the world.
One day, while the brothers were young teenagers, they were walking through an open field with the occasional tree/shrubbery/fallen branch/etc. One of the fallen branches had a spider’s web, and in the web a beautiful butterfly was caught. Upon closer inspection, one of the brothers also noticed that the spider was gradually making its way across the web and closing in on the butterfly. The young man gingerly reached for the butterfly, and began a slow, possibly futile, effort of freeing it from the web. After his brother noticed what he was doing, he walked over behind him and crushed the spider in his bare hand. The first brother looked at him incredulously. “Why did you do that?”
“You wanted to save the butterfly, didn’t you? That was the easiest way to do it.”
“But I didn’t want to kill the spider! I wanted to save both!”
“You couldn’t possibly save both. If you kept freeing the butterfly, the spider would eventually die of starvation. I killed the spider to save the butterfly.”
“Don’t you understand?!?! I wanted to save both of them!!”
And with that, they fought as brothers often do, until an adult came along and broke up the fight. But they both carried those beliefs with them well into adulthood. The one saw life as disposable, something to be thrown away to spare something else. The other saw life as sacred, and believed that no matter how grim a situation might have been, there was always a way out without death.
I try to save the spider and the butterfly. Sometimes, a lot of times, it seems like this isn’t possible. But I believe it’s because I haven’t tried hard enough, or looked deep enough, or thought long enough. There has to be a solution that saves everyone. But in the case of my job and my former manager, I couldn’t find it. I killed the spider to save the butterfly. And though I’m not distraught over that, I do think I’m a little disappointed in myself.
posted by christhestampede @ 11:13 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Well I am extremely disappointed in you also! Because of you, this girl will have to prostitute her self on the corner of where she used to work to support her dwarf baby and go back to smoking crystal meth. The meth will turn her growing fetus into a child resembling lobster boy Grady who will have to find work with the carnival people. He will then marry elephant woman, thereby having elephant babies with lobster claws and feet. This will be all too much for your former coworker and she will fit her self with cement shoes, jumping over the pier and kill herself. All because you are a selfish heart less bastard who turned her in and didn’t stroke her hair and massage her back and feet. Its people like you who deserve to be tarred with honey and left with red ants.
*I know you were expressing a feeling and are over it. But this was too easy and it was fun for me so there! I am not minimizing your feelings. Also if I am a pain in the ass please just tell me to shut up. I Just really enjoy reading your blog.
P.S
Maybe you could have saved her if you groped her? Maybe she needed the human touch?
Thanks
No, no; look closer on my comment on your blog. I said "frope," not "grope." I don't know what frope means. I just know that I meant to type grope, but it came up frope, and I decided that I liked frope better. I think it draws a link to the word "frumpy" which I also enjoy.
And I guess elephant woman is available to date her lobster baby now because her husband left her to go out with the buffalo gal so they could dance by the light of the moon. And you are as far from a pain in the ass as possible (wouldn't that be a pain in the neck?). I sincerely look forward to your comments; they never cease to make me laugh.
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