When I was a young child, I was fascinated by this Aesop fable. I believe many children and adults have read or heard of this story, summarised as follows:
A boastful hare, who once thought of himself as a fast animal, belittled the tortoise for being such a slow creature. One day, the tortoise challenged the hare to a race. The slothful hare took a nap halfway through the route towards the finish line. The tortoise eventually caught up to the hare, emerging as the winner and defeating the hare, who suddenly realised that he had been left far behind when it was already too late. In the end, the hare felt ashamed of himself.
There are several lessons that can be derived from this simple Aesop fable and perhaps the most common one is ‘Slow and steady wins the race’.
The story of the Hare and Tortoise encourages people from all walks of life to be diligent and meek. With much grit and persistence to be successful, we would eventually reach our desired goals– as portrayed by the character of the tortoise.
However, life often takes an unexpected turn and the generalisation of such assumptions requires further evaluation. Have you ever had an experience of working really hard for something, only to realise that you still can’t be compared to some of your peers who seem to be better than you?
Comparing oneself with others is an unavoidable phenomenon and people do this very often; sometimes silently within their hearts or overtly expressing feelings of jealousy about the success of others.
This Aesop fable presents a profound moral lesson of hard work which is worthy of emulation.
Having said that, I would like to invite my readers to contemplate on several aspects of this story if it was retold by another storyteller and presented in different angles, of which I wish to present to inspire and entertain both the young and old.
Written by: Grace Wong Mei Yen 🌷
