Boys who cry
A boy asked me last night, if I’d ever wondered ‘what if the boy who cried wolf, was telling the truth?’
My reply, is, Life, like the wolf, doesn’t care if you lie or tell the truth. In both cases, life and the wolf, will both eat you up in the end. Your going to get bitten, and your going to die.
Ultimately, you can’t control how others percieve you. You go through life ‘telling’ others things, lies, or truths. You cannot control whether you are believed or not, you can only hope. Regardless of how others see you, the journey is likely the same, as is the end result.
So Aesops fable, and moral, in my opinion, could use some correction. So why tell the truth when others may still percieve you as ‘false’ ‘wrong’ ‘bad’ ‘immoral’? Because it’s not how the story ends that’s important. It always ends the same. It’s how the story goes that’s important. It’s not what happens in other peoples heads about how they see you that’s important. It’s about your own sense of integrity, truth, well-being, and peace.
The little boy who lied about the Wolf, probably was feeling pretty crappy and fucked up, to need to create that kind of nasty drama and bullshit to get attention, to feel valued, important, needed, accepted. The villagers and family did the wrong thing, by shunning him, the moral of that story, is if you don’t want poor sweet troubled little boys to get horribly eaten by wolves, don’t ignore obvious cries for help. Do you really want a sweet little boy to get eaten alive? no. The community there did a crappy job of supporting a seriously troubled youth. It’s not ’shame on the boy, he got what he deserved’, it’s shame on the community, where was there compassion and love, that produced such a troubled child, and led to such a traumatic event.
If the little boy told the truth, and was disbelieved, likewise.
Regardless, individuals are formed by communities. Individuals cannot control the actions of others. communities are formed by individuals. You as an individual can only control your own actions.
Don’t be a boy who cries wolf - don’t lie. It gets you no where in the end, you’ll only feel crappier.
Don’t be a boy who tells the truth, is disbelieved, and feels like the world is against him, or that he is worthless, or that everything is hopeless. You cannot force others to think or feel a certain way. Feel proud of your self integrety, let go of the things you cannot change. Realize the important part is self-love and self-support.
Just be a boy.
Be a good villager. If someone tells you something. err on the side of believing them. If time proves them a liar, be cautious, but keep giving them the benefit of the doubt. Understand that their need to lie is motivated by ’something’ and try to understand what that something is from a place of love and compassion. When in doubt that a wolf is at the door…. err on the side of responsible caution. Better to be fooled once, twice, three times, or more, than get eaten by wolves, or let little troubled children get eaten by wolves.
What about if the liar is an adult. The adult may be an adult, but you better believe the liar in them is likely still a troubled little boy.
That’s enough of on boys and wolves.