Perspective

The Tail’s Paradox

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One hot summer morning, a chameleon was walking through the desert oblivious to its surroundings, when all the sudden, a snake came up from the sand and snatched him up whole.

With one bite, the chameleon was swallowed, leaving nothing to the earth but his tail.

As the tail lay in the blistering sun, a miracle began to happen.

From the end of the tail, (which was once the chameleon) a new tail began to grow.

Within minutes, the tail was now whole again, but separate from the body in which it was originally attached.

In that moment, both ends of the tail began to move.

In one symbiotic motion, the two ends of the tail moved towards each other.

“Where’s the body?” The old end asked the new end.

“What body?” The new end answered clearly confused.

“The one I was attached to.”

“There is no body, you’re attached to me.” It replied.

“No, you weren’t here before.” The original end demanded.

“There was a body, then we were separated when the snake came from the sand and took it.”

The new end of the tail still looking confused, decided to point out the obvious.

“Look, I know you believe there was something else here, but you and I, we’re both clearly one tail.  There is no one else.”

The original end grew impatient.

“I know you don’t believe me, but you weren’t always here.  And quite frankly, I’m not happy about the situation.” It said angrily.

Regardless of what the either end thought, the reality was that they were nothing more than a single tail resting upon the hot desert sand.

And, if they didn’t come to some kind of agreement soon, that’s where they would stay.

So, they fought until several hours had gone by, and eventually came to a stalemate.

As the tail laid in the sun in silence, dehydration began to set in and it began to wither.

After several days of drying out in the hot sun, the tail was all but dust as its final moon began to rise.

In that moment, the tail witnessed a dark figure moving towards it in the moonlight.

In the tail’s amazement, it was the chameleon.

Somehow, it survived the snake’s attack.

As the chameleon made its way past the old tail, the original end began to cry out for its true counterpart to reclaim it.

But it was too late.

For the chameleon had already grown a new tail in its place.


REFLECTION

I’ve pondered the purpose of this story for hours.

First, I came up with a lesson of how uncertainty causes inaction.

Then, it was about missed opportunity.

Finally, emotional resistance.

But now, the only thing that seems to make sense out of anything I try to explain, is simply personal reflection.

So, I will let you enjoy the experience of your own reflections as you ponder this story.

Image by Casey Reynolds

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10 Comments
  1. Bill

    I guess for me, the first thing to pop up at the end of the story (tale) was the image of resilience and resourcefulness that the lizard portrayed in escaping from it’s captor. Especially when viewed in contrast to the two pieces of tail that were locked into a stalemate over their individual perspectives.

    There is of course the practical reality that even if the pieces of tail had come to agreement on their collective situation, they still had no means to do anything about it. Unless of course, they could find a way to take their genetic material and replicate the rest of the lizard.

    Then there is the lizard, who instead of worrying so much about his or her situation in the abstract, was more focused on a remedy that would allow the luxury of having the ability to have future existential dilemmas.

    After this all ran through my mind, I was then additionally struck by the perspective or viewpoint of the outside observer, looking in and witnessing this entire situation transpire. Having no vested interest in any party more than any other, allows the luxury of all these different viewpoints. Perspectives that are not available to the lizard or either piece of the tail..

    This allows me then to see the story tellers viewpoint on what transpired, as well as my own feelings and assessments of each part of the story. Including my own visceral reaction to each portion of the micro drama playing out.

    Being able to step back and view from that vantage point, certainly adds levels of possibility to all the potential outcomes that can be had. However, it also points the way to the possibility that there are still yet other vantage points to survey this situation from, that also include the assessments that I brought to the table.

    Getting beyond my story, which filters and limits those possibilities, would be the only way to gain access to those additional perspectives.

    • Adam King

      When I began this I had no idea how many perspectives could be involved. The hardest past was to have “no resolve”. This may have been the lesson, who knows.

      But after reading your reflections, it shows me the joy in creating the story in the first place. And yes, once again, I have misjudged and realize the true power of validation within the reflection of others.

      However, that’s not what is playing out here. This feels more like a collaboration. And for that, I have much, much more fulfillment.

      Thanks for sharing your views.

      • Adam King

        By the way, this story was originally called “The Tale of Two Tails”, but that’s been used for more than a dozen other stories, so I changed the name.

        Just thought I’d share that.

      • Bill

        In human terms, isn’t any form of collaboration just about the only way to get to a perspective that is outside the individual’s realm of awareness and enter a parallel set of perspectives. If we only bring our singular perspective to the table and then try to view what a parallel perspective may entail, are we not simply applying the same filters to all those viewpoints, whether consciously or subconsciously?

        • Adam King

          Yes, and no.

          Yes, we see “from our bodies” and your point is perfectly valid.

          However, I’ve been able to see “from my environment” as well. I mean, literally forgetting who I am, without a body, and physically unconscious.

          This is where Tessera came from in the first place.

          But all the time (especially as of late) your argument has been my truth as I’ve forgotten my Tesserean roots.

          Clearly, we’re headed back in that direction.

          Other than that, yes, I agree with you.

          • Bill

            My contention to this is comparable to what we experience in our dreams. While we are in our dream state, we have options that our not necessarily bound by our filters, but can be if we wish. The moment we come back to a waken state of consciousness, no matter how hard we try to put that dream into some form of context, it will always be painted with our filters intact. As long as the intellectual mind is working to recant or analyse that dream experience, it will be held to the standards of our filters.

            It all goes back to that discussion in physics of how we perceive a photon of light to be. We have come to a partial agreement that light can be seen as both a particle and a wave. When viewed as a particle, we must assume it to stationary at that moment of observation. When we do this, we apply many beliefs or filters to that model. Most of which are based on comparisons that we have made to other such structures from our pursuit of understanding of our physical world. In a sense, at lot of fixed models that form a linear progression in the direction we believe makes sense overall.

            However, when we try to understand the photon from the standpoint of a wave, we lose track of all means to describe the actual particle that we previously mapped out. Instead. all we are left with is the effect that this photon has given us relative to
            the space around us.

            This place where the photon acts as a wave, we can’t describe because in many ways it is similar to that dream state. It has an omnipotence to it that really can’t be put in a box. Since our reality is nothing but a box, gaining the full extent of awareness beyond the human form is most likely not possible by using the human form. What we our likey left with, is merely a shadow image of what our experience actually was. Then we go and fill in the details while in the conscious state, that most closely relate to our normal filtered model of everything, IMHO.

            • Adam King

              I like the point you’re making about “the return”. Not just because it’s valid, but because it’s obvious.

              I can be completely separate as Source, without my conscious body, even aware of it, but the second I return to “Adam”, the experiences gets changed by my story.

              Truly a great point.

              • Bill

                Yes, exactly! Which is what begs the question, is what we relate to others about these experiences from the perspective of source, really what happened to us or how we actually perceived it, or just a symbolic representation of what was there?

                If that is indeed the case, then to really share this transcendent state, the best we can do is to show others where the doorway is, without leaving the residue of our stories there to influence their experiences. Otherwise, we risk producing expectations of someone else could or should experience when in that state of source. Kind of like telling someone what it would feel like to be part of a wave. Why ruin the fun?

                • Adam King

                  I think it’s both. If you look at the nature of non-duality, then of course, it’s both. The chicken and the egg showed up together.

                  What we’re asking, is which one was driving the car?

                  And you answered this perfectly in my opinion.

                  “You simply put someone in the back seat and allow them their own experience.:”

                  I think this is what has happened with this story, and why I’m beginning to like it more and more.

  2. Sataly

    Kudos to both of you. You are about to enter the Realm of the Art of Sacred Story Telling. 🙂

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