[Someone just clicked this post which made us review it and repost it. This was first posted February 28, 2013; at that time, I was not aware this anecdote was well known, so well known in fact that when I googled “images of frog and scorpion” I was sure I would not find any that had both creatures in one image that would illustrate the story. Ooops, pardon my ignorance, what do I know?
To my surprise, at the later reposting February 2, 2015, I discovered the story is so well known because it originated from Aesop’s Fables, it even inspired a book based on it and a cartoon illustration!
Image from blog.adl.org
In fact, some illustrations had human heads
for either creature and one even had
the star of David on the scorpion
and an arab’s headdress on the frog;
this one, I thought, hmmmmm,
should it not be the other way around?
Probably depends on who’s side the illustrator is on.
Image from www.cartoonmovement.com
Then there was another one
with the Islamic symbol on the scorpion
and Europe on the frog,
related no doubt to the recent slaughter of the
satirist editorial staff of the newspaper
Charlie Hebdo in Paris.
Update 2016: Applicable even more so with the current terrorist suicide bombings in Brussels, Belgium.
There are many more interesting applications of who’s who, depending on the mind of the user of Aesop’s fable; go check for yourself, you’d be surprised!
Anyway, I decided to stick to the original post unrevised except for this introduction. Read on.]
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I’m not sure if this version is correct. I got this second-hand from someone who didn’t get it right and thought it was about a scorpion and an ant . . . so with a little figuring out, we agreed it might have been a frog. So here’s a revised tale: there was a scorpion who lost his footing and fell into a pond. Not knowing how to swim, he desperately looked for help while struggling to keep afloat and spotted a frog nearby. The dialogue then goes somewhat like this:
S: “Help me, Mr. Frog, I can’t swim!”
F: “No way, Mr. Scorpion.”
S: “Why not?”
F: “Because you’re a scorpion, it’s your nature to sting and release your poison, you will kill me.”
S: “I promise I will not, just get me out of here, please, please, I will not harm you, I promise!!!”
F: “Promise?”
S: “Promise!”
F: “OK, here I come, just get on my back and I’ll get you out of the water.”
And so, the frog jumps into the water, offers his back to the scorpion who is greatly relieved that another creature not of his kind trusted him enough to come to his rescue. The frog starts swimming and just as they both were about to get to the edge of the pond, the scorpion digs his tail into the frog’s back and releases his poisonous sting.
F: “What did you just do? You stung me when you promised you wouldn’t! You’ve just lost your one and only chance to survive, now we both perish!!!”
S: “Sorry, I just can’t help it, that IS MY nature!”
So they both drown, sink into the bottom of the pond and die together, with the scorpion still clutching on to the frog.
Image from www.freerepublic.com
The original story teller, says my source, was making a point about difficult people who don’t change and never will because they simply can’t help being true to their nature, just like the scorpion whose nature as a poisonous stinger has to get its way, even if it is detrimental to his very survival. Not only that, his toxic nature becomes destructive to others around him as well so with such persons/people, the storyteller suggests it is best that we keep our distance from them.
Let’s examine the lesson being taught here.
Is being “true to one’s nature” applicable to humans just like it is to animals? Animals have no choice to be anything other than what they were designed for, to fulfill the purpose for which they were created. Animal instincts are built into their system; they are programmed to fulfill those instincts that our Creator, in His wisdom, providing such diversity in His balanced design, deemed perfect for the purpose of each creature on earth. That’s why the Creator declared them all “good” and “very good.”
We wonder why there are pests—wouldn’t our lives be better without cockroaches, flies, mosquitoes, to name three insects we never want to invade our personal space, our homes? For sure, each one wasn’t put here just to test our ability to manufacture stronger pesticides that eventually become more harmful to human health while these critters develop stronger resistance to each new product. The point? Yes, animals will act and react according to their nature. If we are not only aware of that but also respectful and careful that we do not attempt to change God’s design of each of His creatures, then we should not be surprised when pet pitbulls, dobermans, and circus lions suddenly turn against and viciously attack their masters; they are, after all, only being true to their nature.
Image from culturallogic.blogspot.com
What makes humans distinct from animals? Free will, the ability to make choices. Animals don’t have that, so they act and react according to how they are programmed to survive. But human beings, no matter what circumstances they were born in, don’t ever have to remain as they were at any stage of their development and growth. Choice allows humans to adapt and adjust and change as well as remain as they are, if they’re happy as they are. No one needs to be stuck in any phase or stage of personal development.
If you think about it, the Christian teaching that man is born helpless in inherited sin, original sin, is a program for self-defeat. The gracious God of Abraham and Israel is a God of many chances; He does not damn all generations for the one disobedience of the first ‘parents’. Each generation is given the chance to start over. Read the TORAH where His grace and mercy is openly extended to the repentant soul. It is a misunderstanding, misreading and misinterpretation of YHWH’s revelation that results in a false doctrine like ‘original sin.’ It makes the God of the Hebrew Scriptures appear like an unjust God. [Review or read Yechezqe’l 18]
Many Christian testimonies claim “Jesus changed my life” but in actuality, it is the person making a decision to change his life, he’s just giving credit where he thinks it should be due. In fact, the teaching goes farther than Jesus; after belief in him, one has to be ’empowered’ by the Holy Spirit to overcome temptation and sin. God has placed it within man to turn his life around when he so decides. Even substance abusers, alcoholics, smokers who fall into almost helpless bondage to their specific addiction are able to do a turnabout, with or without the help of the Trinitarian Godhead, when they make that crucial decision to do so.
Image from ronaldwederfoort.blogspot.com
As Christians, we used to pray for God to change a person’s heart and mind. Guess what? God will not take back the most precious gift He has ever endowed mankind, the power to make a choice for good or for evil. As far as we know, He will never invade man’s free will; each person was given that capability to change the course or direction of his life, as long as there is no external impediment to it. How? By simply making a choice and carrying it through. Humans are—to borrow a movie title about Elsa the lion— ‘born free.’ It is basic in human nature to exercise his free will whether he is conscious of it or not. . . . would that he chooses to do it responsibly. The TORAH of YHWH teaches him how to do that.
[RA] Deuteronomy/Debariym 30:15-16:
See, I have set before you today life and good and death and evil, that I charge you today to love YHWH your God, to go in His ways and to keep His commands and His statutes and His laws. And you shall live and multiply, and YHWH your God will bless you in the land into which you are coming to take hold of it.
[AST] Joshua/Yahushuwa 24:15:
If it is evil in your eyes to serve YHWH, choose today whom you will serve: the gods your forefathers served across the river, or the gods of the Amorite in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve YHWH!
At the end of an email stationery of a lady lawyer I know, is a quote I wish I could have penned :
“Try to realize,
and truly realize,
that what stands between you
and a different life
are matters of responsible choice”
— Gary Zukav
[http://seatofthesoul.com/about/gary-zukav/]
NSB@S6K
