The white baboon
On the outskirts of a lush jungle, on the shores of a big lake, a strange baboon clan was settled.
The leader of this clan was a white baboon. This baboon, different from all other baboons, has always felt special. From his early days, he felt that he was destined to become the leader of his clan. His condition (leucism, loss of pigmentation, the cause of his white, pale appearance) amplified his other "condition" – the delusion of grandeur disorder. Self-centered and arrogant, the white baboon ruled his clan with chaotic rules and manic urges.
On one occasion, he even issued a order to have the palm leaves lifted above the clan settlement to prolong the night i.e. cover the sun to turn day into night and to have the appearance of a 24 hour night as he indulged in self-love with his white pale fur radiating an ambient glow in the darkness. Various other meaningless tasks were given to the clan: collecting pebbles from one side of the lake beach just to have them moved to the other side of the lake, ego driven orders to find the biggest mango in the jungle, never being satisfied with it in the end and so on.
To add to the grandeur self appearance, the white baboon always wore a special crown made from palm wood. The crown made the baboon feel special, as if it was not enough that he was already different from all the other baboons. The crown was permanently on his head and nobody could even think to question him or God forbid wear a similar crown.
On the other side of the jungle, on the first peak of the one and only hill in the savanna, the ruler of the entire animal kingdom, the lion, relished his dominion. The lion ruled in accordance with nature, just, humble, firm but fair. As a king should be. The lion distributed power to each animal species but with clear rules on the natural order of the kingdom. One of the mysteries surrounding the lion's calmness in ruling the kingdom was the fact that every morning, at sunrise, the lion climbed the top of his hill and whilst gracefully looking at the light beginning to bathe his kingdom, he quietly mumbled something. Nobody knew why and what exactly the lion was saying to himself.
On the shores of the lake, as the white baboon's narcissism grew with time, he began to daydream about ruling the entire animal kingdom. He commenced to create a plan to attack the lion king and dethrone him. The delusion of grandeur gave him a sense of invincibility. He issued the order to the clan to prepare for battle. The baboons looked at each other in disbelief as they perfectly knew that they stood no chance in the fight with the lion and his guard.
Luckily, a parrot patrolling the animal kingdom noticed week by week that the behaviour of this strange baboon clan was getting out of hand. After seeing what the white baboon is planning, the parrot informed the lion promptly. Upon hearing this news, the lion decided to pay a visit to the baboon clan and teach the white baboon a lesson.
The following day, the lion, accompanied by the parrot, showed up at the shores of the lake where the baboon clan was settled. He stood quite close to the water and called the white baboon to join him. The baboon was surprised by this sudden visit but still thought of attacking the lion, he was so arrogant that he even considered performing the attack himself right at that moment. As the baboon slowly walked towards the lion along the lake shore, the whole clan observed the situation with angst and fright.
The lion stood calmly on the shore and as the white baboon was nearing closer, he shouted "Hey baboon, what's that down to your right? Somebody is wearing your crown." The white baboon turned his head immediately and to his horor saw also a white baboon, appearing exactly like him, with a special palm crown, looking back straight to his eyes. Possessed by narcissistic rage, the white baboon jumped at this figure staring at him with his claws as sharp as knives ready to kill his impersonator. At the split of a second when he was ready to stick his claw into his lookalike, a loud splash echoed the shore. The baboon was suddenly drowning in the lake as he couldn't swim. Screaming for help, he was lifted out of the lake by the lion's strong jaw. When the baboon, after a few seconds, still shivering from the terror of almost drowning to death, grabbed the mainland, the lion said to him with a firm voice "You fool. You were so blinded by yourself that you didn't even notice that the figure you saw was just a reflection of yourself in the water. You attacked yourself, you crazy baboon. Your ego was inflated beyond sight. All of this, turning day to night, meaningless tasks to your fellow clan members, is unnatural. And we cannot go against nature my dear baboon. Strive for excellence and virtue of your fellow clan members including yourself but not only for yourself. Because next time I will not save you from drowning. Dry yourself now. I hope you have learned your lesson."
The white baboon ran off to his palm tree where, still shivering and contemplating the lion's wisdom, he fell asleep.
As the parrot and the lion were returning home, walking into the sunset, the parrot said "Amazing thing you did back there Your Highness. I always admired your wisdom and calmness. How can you do it?" The lion, smiling at the parrot responded "You see, my dear parrot, we must always act in accordance with nature. If someone does not, we cannot allow to judge him or despise him. We must recognize the good in all things and not give up. We should treat this merely as a small obstacle which we must overcome on our path to virtue, courage, wisdom, justice and temperance. Sunbeams ultimately always defeat a rainy day, right?"
The following morning, at sunrise, just as every other day, the lion stared at the rising sun murmuring the same thought he has been reciting to himself every single day of his reign:
“When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: I will deal today with the meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they can't tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own - not of the same blood and birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are unnatural.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations