The Lion and the Jackal

I went out in the cool of the morning and ran 50 minutes very slowly. Running slow deadens the legs but seems to keep them from getting reinjured.

I met another beast of prey today. John sent her my way. Definitely not a zoo animal. She was not looking for a home but "hunting" opportunities. I sometimes wonder why I am back in a habitat. Good range of freedom but eventually you do hit a fence. Then you can't go any further. I haven't hit that fence yet or at least no so that I can see it.

Talking to a colleague today. She is being punished for being a lion. She is really caged in but then she plays the zoo game including who gets the largest cage and who gets the biggest peace of meat. She fights with other zoo animals. She is a caged female lion who has unwittingly allied herself with a jackal and wonders why her keeper gets annoyed with her.

She is a lion who acts like a jackal. That's why.

So here is the message I have not sent her (yet).

I am reminded of the tale of the lion and the jackal.

There was a lion in the zoo who fought unceasingly with other zoo animals. Now this lion belonged out on the Serengeti hunting for prey but had decided that the zoo was a comfortable place and that she could easily play the game of who had the largest cage and who got the biggest piece of meat. Now most of the other zoo animals didn't like the lion because they knew she had once been a beast of prey and had not been brought up as a zoo animal. To top this off the lion often was seen in the company of a jackal and even the other lions thought less of her because of this. Whenever the jackal felt impugned upon it would rush over to the lions cage and screech and laugh like only jackals can. Except those who know the jackal know that the laughter is not because it is happy. It is just a sound it can make. It sounds like one thing but means another.

Other jackals made of fun of the lion because they hated lions in general and particularly this one because once it had been beast of prey. The lion expected her friend the jackal to defend her but this jackal thought it knew how to play both sides: The jackal side and the lion side. It told the lion what it wanted to hear and the jackals what they wanted to hear.

This set up a great deal of commotion at the zoo (because that was what the place was) and eventually the zoo keeper went to see the lion to tell her that she had better behave. In the end the lion was very confused because she knew that she was losing the thing that made her a lion and she was also losing that which had made her a mighty and fearless hunter out on the Serengeti.

The strangest thing was that this zoo had no doors on the cages and the lion could have escaped and gone out into the wild anytime it wanted to but it chose to stay because the zoo was such a comfortable place.