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The Lion King

Tap into the genius in you

By Smith Bam

There was once a farmer who lived in this village and also was a herder of sheep. One day, he took his sheep out to pasture, and while they were grazing, he suddenly heard a strange noise coming from a patch of grass, which first sounded like a kitten. Led by his curiosity, the old shepherd went to see what was the source of this insistent sound, and to his surprise, he found a lone shivering lion cub, obviously separated from his family.

His first thought was the danger he would be in, if he stayed too close to the cub and his parents returned. So the old man quickly left the area and watched from a distance to see if the mother lion or the pack would return. However, after the sun began to set and there was still no activity to secure the lion cub, the shepherd decided that, in his best judgement, and for the safety and survival of the lion cub, he would take him to his farmhouse and care for him.

Over the next eight months, the shepherd hand-feed this cub with fresh milk and kept him warm, safe, and secure in the protective confines of the farmhouse. After the cub had grown into a playful, energetic ball of shiny muscle, he would take him out daily with the sheep and became a part of the herd. They accepted him as one of their own, and acted like one of them. After fifteen months had passed, the little cub had become an adolescent lion, but he acted, sounded, responded and behaved just like one of the sheep.

In essence, the lion had become a sheep by association. He had lost himself and became one of them. One hot day, four years later, the shepherd sat on a rock taking refuge in the slight shade of a leafless tree. He watched over his flock as they waded into the quiet, flowing water of a river to drink. The lion that thought he was a sheep followed them into the water to drink.

Suddenly just across the river, there appeared out of the tick jungle bush a large beast that the lion cub had never seen before. The sheep panicked and, as if under the spell of some survival instinct, leaped out of the water and dashed toward the direction of the farm. They never stopped until they were all safely huddled behind the fence of the pen. Strangely, the lion cub, which was now a grown lion, was also huddled with them, stricken with fear.

While the flock scrambled for the safety of the farm, the beast made a sound that shook the forest. When he lifted his head above the tall grass, the shepherd could see that the beast held in his blood-drenched mouth the lifeless body of a lamb from the flock. The man knew that danger had returned to that part of the forest.

Seven days passed without further incident, and then, while the flock grazed, the young lion went down to the river to drink. As he bent over the water, he suddenly panicked and ran wildly toward the farmhouse for safety. The sheep did not run and wondered why he had, while the lion wondered why the sheep had not run since he had seen the beast again. After a while, the young lion went slowly back to the flock and then to the water to drink again.

Once more, he saw the beast and froze in panic. It was his own reflection in the water. While he tried to understand what he was seeing. Suddenly, the beast appeared out of the jungle again.

The flock dashed with breakneck speed toward the farmhouse, but before the young lion could move, the beast stepped in the water toward him and made that deafening sound that filled the forest. For a moment, the young lion felt that his life was about to end. He realized that he saw not just one beast, but two – one in the water and one before his eyes.

His head was spinning with confusion as the beast came within ten feet of him and growled at him face-to-face with frightening power in a way that seemed to say to it, ‘Try it, and come and follow me.”

As fear gripped the young lion, he decided to try to appease the beast and make the same sound. However, the only noise that came from his gaping jaws was the sound of a sheep. The beast responded with an even louder burst that seemed to say, ‘Try it again”.

After seven or eight attempts, the young lion suddenly heard himself make the same sound as the beast. He also felt stirrings in his body and feelings that he had never known before. It was as if he was experiencing a total transformation in mond body, and spirit.

Suddenly, there stood in the river of life two beasts growling at and to each other. Then the shepherd saw something he would never forget. As the beastly sounds filled the forest for miles around, the big beast stopped, turned his back on the young lion, and started toward the forest. Then he paused and looked at the young lion one more time and growled, as if to say, “Are you coming?”

The young lion knew what the gesture meant and suddenly realized that his day of decision had arrived – the day he would have to choose whether to continue to live life as a sheep or to be the self he had just discovered. He knew that, to become his true self, he would have to give up the safe, secure, predictable, and simple life of the farm and enter the frightening, wild, untamed, unpredictable, dangerous life of the jungle. It was a day to become true to himself and leave the false image of another life behind. It was an invitation to a “sheep” to become the king of the jungle. Most importantly, it was an invitation for the body of a lion to possess the spirit of a lion.

After looking back and forth at the farm and the jungle a few times, the young lion turned his back on the farm and the sheep with whom he had lived for years, and he followed the beast into the forest to become who he always had been – a lion king.

Tribune: Parables From Africa: The Lion King

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