Misadventures in the Land of Fables #50
THE SNAKE AND THE SWALLOW-TAILED KITE
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This fable was inspired by the painting by French-American ornithologist John James Audubon.
It started with a simple question. The kite has caught a snake: what was the snake doing when it was caught? The same as the kite, it was pursuing its next meal, a lizard, let’s say—why else would it be out and about? And what of the lizard? It too is motivated by hunger, busy on the skittish trail of a cricket. As for the cricket, I don’t know, but I think maybe it has a different goal, searching for a mate.
Unwittingly, the cricket leads a little dance of predation, the food chain laid out in the long grass. While the dizzy cricket may be oblivious, naive and optimistic, the snake imagines itself superior, in control, its place at the top of the order, stronger than the creatures it pursues, more deserving, therefore. It is in for a shock.
When the bird of prey attacks, the snake is taken by surprise; its view of the world is also assaulted. The imagined order is upset. “I am not your prey,” it protests. The weaker creatures are the ones who should be taken, it implies; they are the ones who must be the victims, as if the status of ‘predator’ afforded it some protection.
It’s a vain and questionable argument, but when did that stop us? We tend to consider ourselves more powerful and more deserving than in fact we are. From the bird’s eye view, we are no different to the other creatures who move across the land, whether we stroll, slither, scamper, or jump.
These illusions are torn apart by the swallow-tailed kite.
Read the new fable here: ‘The Snake and the Swallow-tailed Kite’
