The Lion, the Man, and the Lesson

This story is a continuation of The Lion and the Statue, author's note included at the end.

The man and the lion started a dispute on whether lions or men were stronger. The man argued that men had higher intelligence which contributed to their overall strength. He tried to show the lion a statue of Hercules defeating a lion as proof of men being stronger than lions. The lion told the man the statue could not stand as proof because it was created by another man.

The words of the lion left the man silent. He thought for a moment that perhaps the lion was correct. What the lion had said made some sense, yes. But would the man set aside his pride to admit that? As the man wondered to himself for a bit, the lion turned to take his leave. The sense of movement pulled the man from his thoughts and he spoke to the lion to stop him.

“Wait! If this does not convince you, then what other proof could I show?” the man asked.

The lion gave him a thoughtful look before he said, “Perhaps start with yourself. Instead of using the work of others as proof, do something of your own that will convince me. Only then might I acknowledge that there is truth to what you claim.”

The man paused to consider this. Why should he create his own proof when other evidence already exists? It seemed absurd to him. What a waste of time. Surely the lion knew how silly this request sounded, but then why did he ask this of the man?

“What purpose does that serve? Proof is proof regardless of if it is mine or not."

The lion smirked teasingly at the man and said, “You are correct. Proof is proof. But you will never gain anything if you go through life without doing things yourself.”

The man was even more confused. He could easily outsource for his needs and wants while still living a good life.

The lion continued, “I see by the look on your face that you do not understand. Think about the experience you gain from the things you do. All of the trials and chores that you go through make you grow as a person. You become stronger and wiser from them. I will say nothing more. Think on what I have told you and decide what you will do from here.”

The lion walked a short distance away from the man to the nearest tree, which he lay under to give the man time to think.

The man held his position, the words of the lion ran through his head. He believed he understood now. But even so, how can he create his own proof for their earlier debate of whether men or lions are stronger? In a test of strength, the best way to prove who is stronger is to compete and see who wins in the end.

In this case, that would mean the man could test his strength against the lion himself. The man was not fond of this idea, for he was not sure he could win, especially against this particular lion. The lion was not much larger than average, but he did have quite noticeable muscles and long claws. Anyone would be foolish to even entertain challenging the lion after seeing how dangerous he appears. Unfortunately, no other ideas came to the man's mind. He settled on trying his hand at competing against the lion for now. The man walked over to the lion under the tree to propose his idea.

“I have thought on your words. I believe I understand what you mean and so, I wish to challenge you to a test of strength,” the man said to the lion without much confidence.

“Ah, so you have come up with your own solution. I am glad." The lion added while he stood up, “I accept your challenge. In what way shall we test our strength?”

“Let us see who can wrestle the other to the ground first, by any means." The man added in an unsure voice while his eyes darted to the lion's paws, “Please be mindful of your claws.”

The lion laughed heartily. “Rest assured, if I wanted to injure you I would have already done so.”

The two positioned themselves standing in the grass and prepared to lock arms, or in the lion's case, his front legs. The man counted to three, and the two rushed each other. At first, the lion and the man appeared to be evenly matched. Neither of them budged more than an inch or so within the first ten seconds. The lion suddenly smiled while he stared at the man's face. Two beats passed before the lion brought the man to the ground quickly.

The man grunted on impact and looked up at the lion with a scowl after he adjusted himself on the ground. “That was not very gentle. But I see that I am no match for you. You win." The man sighed as he brought himself to his feet.

The lion still wore his smile and responded, “I did win, but hopefully you gained more from this experience than a loss. I want you to practice and challenge me again later. Perhaps next time bring with you the superior intelligence of men that you spoke of.”

The man accepted his suggestion and did exactly so. The man lost several more times against the lion, but became stronger each time while he learned from his mistakes. Finally, after many losses the man barely won against the lion when he swept his feet out from under him.

The lion laughed from where the man brought him to the ground. "I see that you have learned. I accept this proof towards your argument about the strength of men versus the strength of lions. But you will have to provide more evidence, for this does not settle anything. I shall wait for you to choose your next trial.”

As a result of the lion’s words, the man continued to grow by doing things himself and learning from his experiences.

Author's Note

I wanted to write this story because I enjoyed the way the original delivered the lesson that it taught. I believed the established setting and characters provided a great opportunity to incorporate the lesson used in this new story. The lesson I used is one that means a lot to me because of where I learned it from. I hope that others who read my story enjoy the lesson that I used as well. This story picks up right after the last lines of the original, so the context from that story is recommended for understanding this one. The beginning of my story provides a brief summary of the original, but to make sure that the context is understood I will explain it again here. The original story involved the same two characters used in my story, the lion and the man. The man argued to the lion that men were stronger than lions due to their higher intelligence. The lion was shown evidence that this claim was true, but the evidence the man provided was a statue of Hercules defeating a lion. The lion would not accept this as proof of what the man says is true, since the statue itself was created by men. This alleged proof was clearly biased, as the lion pointed out.

Bibliography. "The Lion and the Statue" from The Fables of Aesop by Joseph Jacobs (1894). Myth-Folklore Anthology