“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci (Adopted by Steve Jobs)
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A Doe had lost one of her eyes. To avoid danger, she always fed on a high cliff near the sea, with her sound eye looking towards the land.
But the Hunters found out that she was blind of one eye, and hiring a boat, rowed under the cliff where she used to feed and shot her from the sea.
“Ah,” cried she with her dying voice, “I am undone from where I assumed myself to be safe. Prey is not forgiven even a blind spot.”
Moral of the Story: Do not assume safety. Enemies will test every protection, and exploit every weakness. He who has lost an eye must learn to turn his head.
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Introduction – The Essential Aesop – Epilogue
Related Articles: Consistency and Incremental Success – No. 82. The Tortoise and the Hare – The Essential Aesop™ – Back to Basics Abridgment Series
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Why We Loved It: Aesop sets up the fable with the Hunters as predators and the Doe as prey. In doing so, there is no mistake that Aesop wants us to understand vulnerability in a naturally adverse environment. The Hunters are, by their nature, predators. The Doe is, by its nature, prey. Aesop is not asking us to judge the morality of the Hunters, and he is not asking for our empathies for the vulnerable Doe. Hunters hunt deer. Deer beware.
In many renditions of this fable, the moral is stated as, “Prey cannot change its fate,” which seems too simplistically deterministic to provide wise guidance. There is no wisdom where there is no free choice.
Accordingly, it seems that Aesop is really telling us to stay vigilant. That is, we need always to remember that the general rule is not perfect, and that we can still be undone by the rare exception. The Doe tries to manage her loss of an eye with a clever accommodation in feeding at the cliff, never expecting the threat to come from the sea. But, alas, after some ado, the determined Hunters were able to exploit that weakness. Even more so, we see that the Doe became even more predictable by her effort to protect herself. The Doe assumed her fix was assured, yet it was not. She still needed to turn her head.
Ille qui amisit oculum convertat ad discendum est caput eius.[1]
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[1] “He who has lost an eye must learn to turn his head.” [grz]
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© 2013 Arnold Zegarelli and Gregg Zegarelli, Esq. Gregg can be contacted through LinkedIn. Arnold Zegarelli can be contacted through Facebook.
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