We're all at least vaguely familiar with the story of The Tortoise and the Hare, right? Hare was constantly boasting on his speeding saying that no one else in the world was faster, and would always single out Tortoise, for his lame pace. One day, Tortoise has had enough and declares that surely someone could beat Hare in a race. To this Hare scoffs, and asks who could beat him, Tortoise? After a bit of egging on Tortoise challenges Hare to a race. At this point, I know what you were probably thinking. 'Tortoise, man, what the heck are you doing? You're a TORTOISE. It takes you an hour and a half to check the mail. You are going to lose.' But don't stop reading the story, because there's a huge twist ending -- you never see it coming.
Alright, back to the story. The race begins and Hare dashes off at a full sprint, while Tortoise slowly takes half a step. Hare reaches the half-way point by the time Tortoise has cleared the starting line. Hare, who was partying all night, because he's an animal on the dance floor, is a bit sleepy and more than likely hung over. Thinking he has plenty of time to finish the race, he decides to take a nap. He awakes with a start sometime later, and sees that Tortoise is only a quarter of the way to the finish line. He sighs with relief as his stomach grumbles. Once again, thinking he has plenty of time, he searches for something to eat. Not too far from the race track he finds a farm with some cabbage or lettuce or carrots -- something delicious. He eats so much his eyelids droop and he let's out a huge yawn and falls asleep once more.
This was a fatal error. For as the Hare ate and slept, the Tortoise kept going, muttering something stupid like 'slow and steady wins the race,' and by the time Tortoise is three quarters of the way there, Hare wakes up, sees Tortoise's progress, curses under his breath, and runs as fast as he can -- faster than the gingerbread man I'd imagine. Hare is only a few steps away from the finish line. He jumps, silently prays, and lands on the finish line half a second after Tortoise reaches it. Hare bursts into tears and falls on his sword. Tortoise, while being interviewed by CNN, looks directly into the camera, which they told him never to do, and says proudly, 'Slow and steady wins the race.'
THE MORAL
You're probably thinking, 'I know what the moral is. Clearly the moral is, 'Slow and steady wins the race.'' Well, aren't you clever? But you're wrong! Tortoise could be as slow and steady as he liked, but the fact is, if Hare wasn't a cocky jerk and just took his nap after the race, Tortoise would have lost, and everybody would think Hare was a bully for beating Tortoise. So the moral could easily be 'Don't be so cocky, this is a race!'
Or we could look at this a different way. Everybody was sure that Hare would win the race. Heck, Tortoise probably thought Hare would win. Maybe the moral is 'Persevere no matter how much you're going to suck.' Although, clearly the race wasn't a good idea, I'm sure we all could agree on that, and if you don't, please pretend you do for my sake. Perhaps the moral is 'Don't let people get you to do something that clearly isn't a good idea.'
So what IS the moral?
Beats me. I'm sure it's one of those three. My personal favorite is don't be cocky, but the other two I provided are good as well. Maybe there are three morals. Maybe there's an even better moral I haven't thought of. Whatever the case may be, it ISN'T 'Slow and steady wins the race.'
Then again, what do I know? Maybe it really is the moral. It isn't, but what if it was? What if there were people all over the world working slowly and at a steady pace and doing just fine? What if there were people doing the same job quickly, and weren't cocky about it? They'd be the guys I'd hire more often, wouldn't you? I bet they've even won a race before. I should ask them, when I get a chance.
Maybe, maybe the moral is, 'a story can have any number of morals and it's up to the reader -- what he/she takes from it. A moral is only as good as it is heeded.' Nah, that's crazy. Just stop being cocky.
Mitchell Pridemore - Mitchell Pridemore is a man of wondrous ability. He has the unique gift of reading, and with this reading he can absorb knowledge, ideas, ...
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