Yertle the Turtle

After hearing a colleague make a comment to me about Yertle doing this or that, I picked up a copy of Dr Seuss and read the story of Yertle the Turtle again so I would understand the reference with whom she was speaking.

In short, Yertle is the king of some pond in which he decides that if he builds his throne higher, he'll grow his kingdom by his sight. Each time, he stacked more and more turtles underneath him so that he would sit higher and higher without regard to the “little turtles” holding him up. Until one day he finally falls from his mighty throne – flat on his face.

There is a man with whom I work (Not Yertle). Every day he shows up to clean the firm; empty trash; clean the bathrooms; vacuum and whatever else needs to be done; all without complaining. Of course, no one ever stopped and spoke with him. After all, he was just a lonely janitor. Then one day I saw him in the break room eating his lunch so I sat down and spoke with him. He in his broken English and I in my Spanglish were able to communicate enough for me to learn that he had a degree in broadcasting. But because of the economy, he had to accept a job where he could earn enough money to take care of his family. Mr. G is an educated man, yet no one was willing to talk with him and get to know him.

How often do we have our heads so far in the clouds that we forget about all of our brothers and sisters who may not meet our expectations? We are all in the same web of life and have much to learn from one another. How much of our own fears keep us on our self built pedestals? Whether it be the janitor or manager, we're all working together to make the business work.

Earlier today, someone quoted a verse from the bible to me; Genesis 1:28 (I'll let you look it up). I was basically told that we as humans were given the power by God to be the Masters of all creatures. How sad to think that we are able to MASTER anything other than ourselves. By taking the time to observe the behaviour of plants and animals (yes plants have certain behaviours and characteristics), we would gain a little more understanding of the whole web of life and realize we are here together and need to be more compassionate towards all; including what we do to the environment.

When looking towards the heavens, may your feet keep you planted and connected to the earth.

Namaste,
WS