“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working
together is success.”—Henry Ford
***
The story below has been told many times. Below is my own version:
Once, a mother and her son found themselves lost in a dense forest. Despite their efforts to navigate their way out, they only became more disoriented. As they walked, the young boy accidentally stepped on a sharp twig, injuring his left foot. Fortunately, the injury was not severe, allowing them to continue their journey.
That evening, they discovered a cave where they decided to rest for the night. However, in the middle of the night, the boy began to tremble, suffering from a fever. The mother feared that he might have developed an infection from his injury. She held him close, but his shivering persisted.
Overcome with emotion, the mother cried out, “Is there anyone out there? My son needs assistance.”
At that moment, she noticed the animals surrounding them. “What is the matter?” inquired the monkey.
The mother recounted their predicament. “I urgently need help to take my son to the nearest hospital,” she pleaded. “If not, he may not survive.”
“Very well,” the lion responded. “But we must first change his shirt.”
“Indeed,” the tiger concurred. “I believe yellow would suit him well.”
“No, red would be more fitting for the young boy,” countered the zebra. “However, I am certain he would look splendid in orange,” the giraffe added.
This sparked a lively debate among the animals. Unable to reach a consensus on the appropriate shirt color for the boy, the lion declared, “I am indifferent. You may proceed with your choices, but I will not participate.”
The tiger remarked, “I must take my leave now, as my suggestions are not being considered.”
Restoration of familial bonds, triumphs in sports, and the fortification of friendships occur when unity is prioritized. Inspirational leaders and thinkers often share this perspective. As Mattie Stepanek puts it, “Unity is strength. When there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.”
So, why do we fall? Well, there are several reasons. One of them is opinion. “Between knowledge of what really exists and ignorance of what does not exist lies the domain of opinion,” Plato said. “It is more obscure than knowledge, but clearer than ignorance.”
My friend has a different view: “There are many shallow thinkers in this world, including those who have dug deeply into various subjects and come up with conclusions different from yours.”
Opinions, of course, come from ideas. “All great ideas are controversial, or have been at one time,” George Seldes claimed. “Man is ready to die for an idea, provided that idea is not quite clear to him,” Paul Eldridge said.
“The value of an idea has nothing whatsoever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it,” Oscar Wilde pointed out. Victor Hugo surmised: “There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world: and that is an idea whose time has come.”
Put different people with different backgrounds to discuss a certain idea, and that idea will vanish into oblivion. F. Scott Fitzgerald reminds us: “No grand idea was ever born in a conference, but a lot of foolish ideas have died there.”
Dale Carnegie confesses: “The ideas I stand for are not mine. I borrowed them from Socrates. I swiped them from Chesterfield. I stole them from Jesus. And I put them in a book. If you don’t like their rules, whose would you use?”
Ideas are ideas and they must be put into use. And these ideas should bring goodwill to human beings. After all, we live not only for ourselves but also for others.
Peter DeVries said: “We are not primarily put on this earth to see through one another, but to see one another through.” Charles Dickens added: “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”
In the story I mentioned earlier, you might be wondering as to what happened to the little boy? But I am sure you are disappointed with what the animals have done.
“Something can be learned from the smallest as well as the greatest disappointments or frustrations,” Christine Lindeman explained. “A child who drops his ice cream cone and is not given the money for another will learn to be more careful next time. A man whose car runs out of fuel will learn to check his tank more closely in the future.”
When I recounted the tale of the mother and her ailing son, several friends suggested that the animals ought to resolve their disputes. Rather than debating the color of the boy’s shirt, they should focus on their shared objective: assisting the young boy in reaching the hospital.
I believe that each animal could offer valuable assistance. The lion and tiger could identify the quickest and most efficient route through the forest. The elephants could remove any obstacles from the path. Meanwhile, the birds could scout for potential dangers and hindrances ahead, such as cliffs, rivers, and mountains.
There are typically three categories of individuals who answer the call to service. The first group consists of rowboat individuals who require external motivation to take action. The second group includes sailboat individuals who tend to follow the prevailing situations. However, a rare few belong to the category of steamboat individuals, who determine their destination independently and proceed there irrespective of the prevailing conditions.
As Nobel Prize winner Dag Hammarskjold puts it: “You have not done enough, you have never done enough, so long as it is still possible that you have something to contribute.”
And in which need of other people should you serve? Just a reminder, allow me to quote the words of James R. Fisher: “There are four universal needs common to all humans. They are the needs for a livelihood, maintaining health, getting along with other people, and getting along with oneself.”
