This week’s Inspiration is a repeat of one I originally crafted and distributed in July 2011. In light of our country and world’s current happenings, I thought it a worthwhile time for its revival.
To My Magnificent Fellow Life Travelers:
Now this is the law of the jungle –
As old and as true as the sky;
And the wolf that keep it may prosper,
But the wolf that shall break it may die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk,
The law runneth forward and back –
And the strength of the pack is the wolf
And the strength of the wolf is the pack.
-Rudyard Kipling
In the above poem Rudyard Kipling speaks about the law of subsistence for wolves; that no matter how much a wolf contributes to the pack it is only as strong as the pack it serves. These elegant and effective hunters must work together in perfect harmony in order to survive. They have refined the art of pack hunting to such perfection that they can defeat a foe many times their individual size.
As always, there is a lesson to be learned by us from nature. A well-coordinated group, team, family or nation can attack any task, no matter how large or complex, and can, through their combined strength and unity of purpose, achieve that which is beyond what any singular individual effort could produce. This is true in our business, personal, and spiritual lives.
One way or another, we all depend on others. As St Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, “none of us liveth to himself.”
The following story further illustrates the inexorable truth that none of us is as strong as all of us:
One day a father called his seven sons together so that he could teach them a valuable lesson that would help them throughout their lives. He wanted to demonstrate what the strength of togetherness meant.
He gathered together a bundle of seven sticks which he then carefully tied together with a string. One by one, he asked each of his seven sons to take the bundle and try and break it. And one by one, each of the sons took their very best shot at braking the bundle, but all of them failed.
At this point, the father took out his knife and cut the string. Next, he distributed a single stick to each of his seven sons. Then he asked them to break the single stick with their hands. This time each son broke the stick in their possession with great ease.
Once all the sticks had been broken, the father looked at his sons and said, “When you boys work together in a spirit of harmony, you resemble the bundle of sticks, and no one can defeat you; but when you quarrel among yourselves, anyone can beat you one at a time.”
Great strength resides in unity of purpose.
If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing. Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but [also] everyone for those of others. – Philippians, 2:1-4
Have an AWE-full weekend!
William “Bill” Bacque