An Aesop’s fable is about the encounter of a wolf and a little lamb. Wanting to find reason to turn the lamb into lunch, the wolf growls: ‘last year you insulted me’! The lamb replied, ‘I was just born a few months back.’
The wolf retorts, ‘You grazed in my pasture.’ The lamb said, ‘I don't eat grass yet.’ But the wolf persisted, ‘You drank from my pond.’ The lamb replied, ‘The only thing I drink is my mother’s milk.’
At that point the wolf ate the lamb saying, ‘Well! You certainly like to argue!’
The phrase ‘why and wherefore’ is in Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors: ‘Was there ever any man thus beaten out of season, When in the why and the wherefore is neither rhyme nor reason?’
So often, some of us defend the indefensible. We scout for justifications based on our prejudice born of divisions that see one human being as lesser than oneself. Like the wolf finds many why and wherefores for his predetermined act of violence against the innocent lamb.
Every time, we indulge in irrational choice for our ‘why and wherefore’ we are walking the talk of murderous hate mongers. In the aftermath of the violent act, as time passes, we become complacent. And history repeats…
Vested interests, on all sides, start planting the seeds of hate again, under the garb of nationalism, religion, ethnic pride and more. Messengers of hate talk about ‘teaching them a lesson’. But lessons are meant to be learnt by us by challenging the divisive ‘why and wherefore’.
Why should humanity be trampled out of season
When in the why and the wherefore is no reason?
~ Pravin K Sabnis
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