Dating : The Scorpion and the Turtle — A Short Sermon on Wholeness and Hate

“They are whole from the foundation of the world …

and they hate their own blood.”

– Book of Moses 6:54, 7:33

I’m reminded of the old Persian fable of the scorpion and the turtle:

The turtle, walking along the riverbank, encounters its old friend the scorpion. The scorpion says it needs to cross the river but cannot swim, then asks if the turtle will carry it across the water The turtle agrees and the scorpion climbs onto the turtle’s shell. The turtle swims halfway out into the river when, suddenly, the scorpion stings the turtle — but the scorpion’s stinger bounces off the turtle’s shell. The turtle reaches the other side of the river, and, as one might imagine, it and the scorpion have a rather charged exchange. The turtle is bewildered that the scorpion would attempt to sting the turtle; the scorpion is bewildered that the turtle’s shell merely deflected the sting!

The moral of the story may become clearer in a more modern, Russian adaptation of this fable: the scorpion and the frog. In this version, the scorpion asks a frog for passage across the river and stings the frog along the way, killing the frog and drowning itself. Both stories warn of the perils of failing to truly perceive oneself or others for what one or another truly is — of getting lost in what one or others “should” or “could” be. The turtle sees the scorpion and presumes that the scorpion “should” or at least “could” be without a stinger to be used; the scorpion sees the turtle and assumes it “should” or at least “could” not have a tough shell. And, indeed, the frog has much the same presumptuous and automatic exchange with the scorpion in its own tale.

One could assume this is a fable about not being naïve about others, and while I believe that’s true, I also believe there’s a deeper meaning to be found here. I believe, in a sense, that this story is about love. Love — unconditional love — is not to see, let alone accept ourselves or others for what we “could” or “should” be, but for what we in reality are. True love does not lose itself in what “should” or “could” be, but embraces what is — for all its worth and all it costs.

The moral of the fable — the lesson the scorpion, turtle, and frog must learn — is to not expect, let alone insist that a scorpion, turtle, or frog to be other than what it is. Indeed, to allow a scorpion, a turtle, a frog to be what they truly are may be what it means to cease “hating” oneself or another for what we are not — but which we “could” or “should” be — and to see the wholeness in ourselves and others which is always already there.

In a word, it may be what it truly means to love oneself and to love another.