The Scorpion and the Frog

December 23, 2006

Do you know the story of the Scorpion and the Frog?

• One day, a scorpion looked around at the mountain where he lived and decided that he wanted a change. So he set out on a journey through the forests and hills. He climbed over rocks and under vines and kept going until he reached a river.
• The river was wide and swift, and the scorpion stopped to reconsider the situation. He couldn’t see any way across. So he ran upriver and then checked downriver, all the while thinking that he might have to turn back.
• Suddenly, he saw a frog sitting in the rushes by the bank of the stream on the other side of the river. He decided to ask the frog for help getting across the stream.
• “Hellooo Mr. Frog!” called the scorpion across the water, “Would you be so kind as to give me a ride on your back across the river?”
• “Well now, Mr. Scorpion! How do I know that if I try to help you, you wont try to kill me?” asked the frog hesitantly.
• “Because,” the scorpion replied, “If I try to kill you, then I would die too, for you see I cannot swim!”
• Now this seemed to make sense to the frog. But he asked. “What about when I get close to the bank? You could still try to kill me and get back to the shore!”
• “This is true,” agreed the scorpion, “But then I wouldn’t be able to get to the other side of the river!”
• “Alright then…how do I know you wont just wait till we get to the other side and THEN kill me?” said the frog.
• “Ahh…,” crooned the scorpion, “Because you see, once you’ve taken me to the other side of this river, I will be so grateful for your help, that it would hardly be fair to reward you with death, now would it?!”
• So the frog agreed to take the scorpion across the river. He swam over to the bank and settled himself near the mud to pick up his passenger. The scorpion crawled onto the frog’s back, his sharp claws prickling into the frog’s soft hide, and the frog slid into the river. The muddy water swirled around them, but the frog stayed near the surface so the scorpion would not drown. He kicked strongly through the first half of the stream, his flippers paddling wildly against the current.
• Halfway across the river, the frog suddenly felt a sharp sting in his back and, out of the corner of his eye, saw the scorpion remove his stinger from the frog’s back. A deadening numbness began to creep into his limbs.
• “You fool!” croaked the frog, “Now we shall both die! Why on earth did you do that?”
• The scorpion shrugged, and did a little jig on the drownings frog’s back.
• “Because I’am a scorpion”
• Then they both sank into the muddy waters of the swiftly flowing river.

Why do I tell this story, well because simply, there are Scorpions in our lives, and they do evil, just because they can, it’s there nature. At 3am I was awoken by my car alarm, in the morning it turns out that someone slashed my rear left tire on my Integra, and threw a large rock at my driver’s side window in attempt to break it. Although I do think I know who did it, I won’t publicly say so on here. But I believe it to be the same person who also keyed my car, and keyed another one of my cars, and also totaled another one.

After I realized it today, I thought of the story of the Scorpion and the Frog. Sometimes, things just don’t make sense. There are people like the Scorpions in our lives, who do bad, just to do bad, and it is just their nature. Everyone should know the story of the scorpion and the frog.