TURTLE & SCORPION

So I picked up this "nugget of wisdom" from Gilmore Girls the other day. Granted the story of the turtle and scorpions didn't come from the actual show, it's just were I first heard it:

The Legend: Turtle who agrees to carry a scorpion across a river learns a fatal lesson about innate nature.

A scorpion, being a very poor swimmer, asked a turtle to carry him on his back across a river. "Are you mad?" exclaimed the turtle. "You'll sting me while I'm swimming and I'll drown."

"My dear turtle," laughed the scorpion, "if I were to sting you, you would drown and I would go down with you. Now where is the logic in that?"

"You're right!" cried the turtle. "Hop on!" The scorpion climbed aboard and halfway across the river gave the turtle a mighty sting.

As they both sank to the bottom, the turtle resignedly said: "Do you mind if I ask you something? You said there'd be no logic in your stinging me. Why did you do it?"

"It has nothing to do with logic," the drowning scorpion sadly replied. "It's just my character."

Since being at Mosaic this summer, I keep thinking about what character really is and how it affects your livelihood. Obviously, the scorpion didn't have solid character. However, in what might be a stretch for application, there has to be people in all of our lives that want to help us but we are "drowning" them and then us regularly.

Ok, just a thought ... Back to mindless fun watching Gilmore Girl ...