Continuing...2
A Fable of Invincible Incompatibility
Phil
Springer
In order to bring even a modicum of
concordance to the story of invincible incompatibility we may find a path by
introducing a conversation between a billygoat and a hummingbird. The billygoat
could represent a "position" and the hummingbird could be a
"process".
Billygoat said to Hummingbird, "Why do
you flit about so? I don't know where you are from one second to the
next."
Hummingbird replied, " Well, I get a bunch of different views of
things."
Billygoat
quickly bleated, " What things, what views. Are you trying to confuse
me?"
Hummingbird
flitting about and thinking, " like a powerful goat that you are, you
hold your stance in the tall grass protecting your assets from being taken
over. That’s a good thing, is it not?"
Proudly, Billygoat returned, " You can see that from where you are?
I wasn't sure because the grass is so tall and thick I'm just trying to hold on
to what I have. When I turn my back for an instant things (grass) go missing.”
Hummingbird musing, “How do you sleep at night having amassed so much
grass.”
Billy goat sadly said, “I don’t really sleep. I just doze; but every
once in a while I do sleep. I could hire
someone to watch through the night, but I would just wake up thinking that the
watcher should have been watched as well.”
Sympathetically but not condescendingly Hummingbird philosophized, “And
I thought I had it so bad just living each day tongue-to-mouth and not having
anything to munch on through the night like you. I just feel hungry but you
suffer the agony of distrust and constant vigilance.”
The conversation ended for the day as the
hummingbird sensing encroaching darkness and returned to his nightly perch. His
pulse rate would drop from about 600 beats per minute to 40 beats per min and
his body temp would drop as well so that he could pass through the night using
only a small amount of energy. But as he
dozed off he thought about the billygoat and how different their respective
lives were. The goat had to guard all that grass but all he had to do was slip
into his nightly torpor. The sun would
warm him in the morning and he could flap his wings and return to the freedom
that only a day-laborer can experience; just need to make one day at a time. But
he knew that his experience with the billygoat was going to continue. He
thought there must be a way for their mutual incompatibilities to find common
ground.
