Four
frogs sat upon a log that lay floating on the edge of a river.
Suddenly the log was caught by the current and swept slowly down the
stream. The frogs were delighted and absorbed, for never before had
they sailed.
At
length the first frog spoke, and said, "This is indeed a
most marvellous log. It moves as if alive. No such log was ever known
before."
Then
the second frog spoke, and said, "No, my friend, the log is like other
logs, and does not move. It is the river, that is walking to the sea,
and carries us and the log with it."
The third frog spoke, and said, " It is neither the log nor the river
that moves. The moving is in our thinking. For without thought nothing
moves."
The three frogs then began to wrangle about what was really moving. The
quarrel grew hotter and louder, but they could not agree.
Then
they turned to the fourth frog, who up to this time had been listening
attentively but holding his peace, and they asked his opinion.
And
the fourth frog said, "Each of you is right, and none of you is wrong.
The moving is in the log and the water and our thinking also."
And
the three frogs became very angry, for none of them was willing to
admit that his was not the whole truth, and that the other two were not
wholly wrong.
Then the strange thing happened. The three frogs got together and pushed the fourth frog off the log into the river.
~ Kahlil Gibran
from Poems, Parables and Drawings
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