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A Good Read
A Teaching Tale: A Question of Balance
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Glenda Gibbs ∙ Changing Perceptions ∙ 8514 W Gage Blvd. Ste. C18 Kennewick WA 99336∙ Office: 509.585.9683
vestiges of past culture and belief as  that represents what was 'bad' and must be replaced by the new 'good'. When
we learn to be more subtle and perceive shades of grey and gradations of 'rightness' and 'wrongness', we get a better

    A question of balance

    Once upon the type of time when animals and humans lived in greater harmony there was a certain village out
    there somewhere. And in this village there lived a particular snake who was vicious and  unkind and had long
    forgotten his heritage of timeless wisdom and the path that surely leads away      from pettiness and spite.

    Not much harmony about him. He would threaten the local inhabitants and on occasion give them a painful bite,
    although fortunately his bite was not venomous.

    The villagers were superstitious and afraid to kill the snake and so it ruled over them and tyrannized   them
    through fear.

    One fine day a wise old man came through the village. He had seen much of the world while managing to remain
    disentangled from its more pernicious temptations and distractions and he saw at once how the power balance
    had gone out of kilter and how the snake ruled the villagers through fear and was itself ruled by its own pettiness
    and vindictiveness. Now the old wise one didn't look much like a brave warrior, but he had managed in his time
    to vanquish fear.  And so he approached the tyrannical snake and began to speak.

    "Listen, oh snake, to the words of an old man who has seen much and understood some of it. You are mistaking
    fear for respect, and hate for regard. Cease and desist your constant biting of children and adults!

    Learn to live in harmony again and build true relationships with a people who worship snakes as guardians of
    sacred knowledge."

    The snake at first hissed in dismissal, and made to bite the old man, but something in those words he had heard
    must have got through to him, for he suddenly relented and avowed that he would change his ways.

    Many months later the old man came back through the same village and what did he see but the children
    taunting and beating the snake with a piece of clay piping. They were laughing at the snake, who steadfastly
    refused to retaliate or even to raise its head from the ground. When the children grew bored with their tormenting
    and ran away, the snake turned to the old man.

    "Thanks to you, my life is now one of torment! The children and now even some of the adults mock and prod me
    to distraction. But I promised you I would mend my ways and - unlike humans - snakes keep  their promises!"

    The old man looked at him and replied: "Oh snake, a power balance is just that - a balance. If you are too hard in life, you
    will eventually become brittle and snap like a twig; if you become too soft, you'll be squashed like an egg.   I told you not to
    bite but - I never said you should stop hissing.  -- Author unknown