The Zebra Storyteller

Once upon a time there was a Siamese cat who pretended to be a lion and who spoke excellent Zebraic.

That language is whinnied by the race of striped horses in Africa. 

Here now: an innocent zebra is walking in a jungle and approaching in the other direction is the little cat; they meet.

"Hello there!" says the cat in perfect Zebraic. "It certainly is a pleasant day, isn't it? The sun is shining, the birds are singing, isn't the world a lovely place to be alive today!"

The zebra is so astonished at hearing a Siamese cat speaking like a zebra that he's fit to be tied. So the little cat ties him up, kills him, and drags the better part of the carcass back to his den.

The little cat successfully hunted zebras in this manner for many months, dining on filet mignon of zebra every night, and from the better hides he made bow ties and wide belts after the fashion of the decadent princes of the old Siamese court. 

He began boasting to his friends he was a lion, and he gave them as proof the fact that he hunted zebras.

The delicate noses of the zebras told them that there was really no lion in the area, however, the zebra deaths caused many to avoid the region. Superstitious, they decided the woods were haunted by the ghost of a lion.

One day the storyteller of the zebras was ambling along and through his mind ran plots for stories to amuse the other zebras, when suddenly his eyes brightened and he said, "that's it! I'll tell the story of a Siamese cat who speaks our language! What an idea! That'll make them laugh!"

At that very moment the Siamese cat appeared before him and said, "hello there! Pleasant day, isn't it!"

The zebra story teller wasn't fit to be tied at hearing a cat speaking his language because he was just thinking of about that very thing. 

He took a good look at the cat, and he didn't know why but there was something about the cat's looks he didn't like; so he kicked him with his hoof and killed the cat. 

And that is the function of the storyteller. 

- a short story by Spencer Holst


I use this story to try to illustrate part of the role that I see this blog playing. Like the storyteller, it is my belief that if one has more knowledge and narratives about the many possibly strange things we may meet in life, the less one will be "ambushed" by them (such as a talking cat!). And so it is with scary mental health disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar, severe depressive episodes, suicidal inclinations and so on; the more we know and understand, the less we fear and the less we get ambushed by the unexpected and the better we can deal with them.

A knowledgeable mind is a more prepared mind, a prepared mind is less prone to fear of the dark aspects of life that can be encountered. As a teller of knowledge and narratives, I hope to be a candle in the dark. Or perhaps even to light the whole room.