A Retell Of “The Tortoise And The Hare”
A different retell.
The story of “The Tortoise and the Hare” is usually told as the moral story of “slow and steady wins the race”.
Here is my own retelling of this story:
One day, the tortoise and the hare decided to walk to the woods together. On the way, they came across a small river. The hare said to the tortoise:
“We need to cross this river.”
The hare then stretched out its hind legs and with one jump it landed on the other side of the river.
The tortoise was left to cross over the river by itself. The tortoise slowly waded itself from one end of the river to the other.
The moral of the story is that there is always more than one pathway to any goal. Whether it is quick or slow, whether it requires little or more effort, we still reach the same destination. Even a slow learner can learn just as much as a fast learner — regardless of speed, they still learn.
In life, never discount anyone behind us — because even the most unlikely person has the full potential to be better than us one day.
The story continues:
The journey to the woods continued.
The tortoise was slow and as it walked, it hurt its legs.
The tortoise then said to the hare:
“I will walk alone because I hurt my legs and I am slow. You can go ahead on your own.”
However, the hare was kind and offered to continue sauntering together with the tortoise.
The hare said:
“Don’t be discouraged. It is because I can go faster than you that the more I will continue to walk together with you and protect you.”
All of a sudden, out of nowhere, a hungry tiger appeared in front of the hare. The tiger pounded on the hare and opened its mouth wide. Just at that very moment, the tortoise used its outer hard shell to prevent the tiger from biting the hare. The tiger then retreated back into the woods.
The moral of the story is that by being benevolent and willing to help others, help will return back to us in other forms that we may not even have thought of. Just the hard shell of a slow tortoise can fend off the fangs of a huge aggressor like the tiger.
It also serves as a reminder to us that two heads are better than one. If the hare and the tortoise had both walked separately, then the tortoise would not have been able to help the hare.
The story has not ended yet:
The journey to the woods continued.
The tortoise and the hare saw a pig. It was snoring, taking its usual afternoon nap.
The pig was awakened by the arrival of the tortoise and the hare. The pig then said:
“I have lost my way to the woods. I will need to hop onto the back of one of you so that you can show and bring me along to the woods.”
Both the tortoise and the hare knew that the pig was too lazy to walk and only wanted to hitch a ride on their backs. In any case, they both thought they would just give the pig a free piggy-back ride — no hassle about it.
The pig, believing that the hare can walk faster than the tortoise, immediately hopped onto the back of the hare for a free ride and the three of them continued their journey.
They journeyed for days, with the hare and the tortoise taking turns to piggy-back the pig. They found food and ate during the journey. The pig grew fatter each day as it had been enjoying its free ride after every meal while the hare and the tortoise trudged and burned off their calories.
One day, the weather started to turn awful and it began to rain terribly. The winds were so strong that both the tortoise and the hare were unable to move forward.
But the previous days of trudging had made both the tortoise and the hare stronger and resilient to the heavy rain and strong wind.
The pig unfortunately had grown fatter day by day. The pig had also become lazier and weaker. With the consistent rain and the wind, the pig gradually fell ill and feeble.
After a few days, the frail pig was even more under the weather and finally succumbed to the illness and passed on.
The moral of the story is that the lazier we are, the weaker we will be. A sedentary lifestyle is a life of hidden illness.
Laziness is not just an awful habit, but also the most perilous inhibitor to motivation in our life. It is precisely the laziness that makes us weaker and the struggles and hard work that really makes us victorious and more rugged.
Inner Monologue
I have recently started falling in love with walking. I will write about it in my next articles. As they say, “Sitting is the new smoking”, so I told myself to get up and walk walk walk walk ….
Credits:
Turtle icons created by Freepik — Flaticon. Rabbit icons created by Freepik — Flaticon. Pig icons created by Freepik — Flaticon.
