The threat to us now is not the preying lion. The threat to us now is not the killer alligator. The threat to us now comes from the slow. Slow processes like global warming, pollution, ethics degradation… The slow can be so slow, that even in slow motion, you will fail to see it. It’s just like the boiling frog story. A frog, when faced with a sudden increase in temperature e.g. fire, will jump away quickly. However, if it were to be in a pot of water at room temperature, it will stay there, even if the pot is slowly boiling it to its death. The frog could not sense the gradual change in temperature fast enough to get out of the pot.
It takes training to sense gradual changes. It takes courage to sense gradual changes. It takes a lot of will power to sense gradual changes.
As kids, we relish in any changes. It comes to us naturally. We notice everything, and I mean everything. Everything is new to us when we were young. Everything is fresh. Falling off a bike is not scary, until you actually fall off the bike. Touching a hot stove is not painful, until you touch it. These big changes were easily identifiable. However, when we were young, we also notice subtle changes. We notice why our parents quarrel more often. We notice who our parents love more. We notice when they are around and when they are not around. We notice the carpet on the floor, how it feels on the hands and the legs. We notice how high the sofa is to the carpet. We notice how high we jump – it’s different on the sofa than on mummy’s bed.
We notice everything when we were young, but somehow, when we grow older, we retain only one part of this ability and leave the other behind. We only know how to notice the sudden changes, like an accident on the road, or a fire at a mall, or a customer scolding you in public. What we fail to notice, is that the car’s tyres have lost its grip gradually, or that the gas pipes have aged tremendously that requires constant monitoring or replacement, or that the customer service processes do not serve the customer well.
We become the boiling frog, unaware that we are in a boiling pot.
A journey within gives us a means where we rise from being a boiling frog. We make use of our best faculties of all, our thinking mind, and look for ways to let us see and feel the boiling pot around us. We can sense the temperature of the water. We can sense the gradual changes. We can touch the wall of the pot. We can find our way around the pot. We can use the water to our advantage.
This is the only way that we could escape the boiling pot.
Are you aware of your own boiling pot?
If you think this is worth sharing, do share it with your friends. Thank you for reading.
Related posts: