Two Campers and A Bear
Storytelling time! Normally I don't publish two posts in a single day, but the message of the story is so thought-provoking that I can't resist sharing with everyone:
In a forest, two campers hear a grizzly bear coming. One starts putting on his running shoes. The other says, "What are you doing? You can't outrun a bear!" The reply: "I don't have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you."
I have grown up to believe in the spirit of altruism, holding firm that I would be the best not by disadvantaging other people but by own merit. Throughout the years, I have always despised "top scorers" who refuse to help weaker students because of either the fear of being outperformed or just being plain impatient and lazy. There are a lot of selfish people out there, and many of them did reinforce their position by not helping the weaker ones. And let's not forget how Microsoft and any other major industrial players gain their market share by shackling other softwares' functionality. But still, I believed or rather, I convinced myself that I won't win by being selfish, in my entire life.
But... if I were the camper, wouldn't I run too? I would, certainly, and just like what he did, I would run as fast as I could - to run for my life - to outrun the other camper.
Trying to justify the bad thought that it's just a basic reflex in face of dangers, I couldn't help but to think further: What if the other camper is my beloved one? What should I do? Why should I do what I did?
What would you do, then?
p/s: I googled for it and found a lot of discussions and reflections on the story. Here's an interesting fruits of thought about the same story.
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2 comments:
this is a good story and i think it will inspire many of us, including me!! i believe many of us, to some extent, are very kia su n kai si. i became more and more kia su after studying abroad, maybe because i already inverst a lot of money on it. really impressed by some people who can really sacrify themselves. sometimes, we know we shouldnt have that kind of bad thoughts and we should practice the good moral, however, we always end up something we shouldnt never never do. we encounter n times of regret, yet we never awaken from it.
Short but meaningful.
Well, talking about overtaking the others, isn't that what we have to do to gain a higher ranking in TER?
I don't really like TER you know? What if for a certain batch, the majority of the students are equally excellent? The competition would be great and even those who meet the desirable required standard might have a lower ranking just because he /she loses a few points to the others.
Perhaps that system makes life easier for the people responsible to pick only the best out of the best...
*sigh*
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