“The Tortoise and the Hare” teaches a valuable lesson of taking your time to do things right.
The two characters in this story both participate in taking a race, however the least suspected character, the Tortoise won. The story begins when a hare insults a tortoise for his slowness and brags about how great a runner she is. The tortoise decides to then challenge the hare to a five mile race. The hare agrees to the race and the race starts.
Because of the hare being such a fast runner she takes a great lead and decides to take a nap.The tortoise comes by jogging at his “slow and steady” pace but the hare does not wake up. Therefore, the tortoise finishes first and wins the race. In the event, the Hare had run into many obstacles while moving so quickly that his mind was often left behind him.
The tortoise, on the other hand, maintained focus and concentration by slowly, yet consistently moving. The tortoise was never sidetracked making well progress. This lesson can play directly into our daily lives. Like the Hare, we can get caught up in moments and lose sight of our long and short term goals.Some of the pyramids that were built in Egypt took about 20 years to make and it still stands now as historical and phenomenal.
Both the Hare and the Tortoise had great energy and determination, but the major differences lie in which areas their energy was invested into. The hare was into all speed while the tortoise maintained the balance between speed and focus. The tortoise was not just slow, he was more aware of his surroundings more like “taking time to smell the roses”. This fable can also be incorporated in a symbolic way of instincts(hare) and turning within(tortoise).
