Once there was a little white pony who lived amongst a herd of horses on the plains. It was just a typical white pony just like all the other little ponies found in the herd, but therein lay it’s problem. It wanted desperately to be different.
One day as it was graizing it met a buffalo, seeing the difference in the buffalo’s tail from it’s own, it asked, “How would I go about getting a tail like that? Surely I would be different if I had a tail like yours.”
The buffalo tried to ignore the white pony, but the white pony was insistant, continually bugging the poor buffalo with its question. Finally in exasperation the Buffalo snapped, “If you really want a tail like mine, the perhaps you should go wallow in the mud, then go swim back and forth across the river four times, while praying for it, maybe then you will get one.”
The little white pony instantly went about as directed, wallowing in the mud and swimming the river. As it swam the river praying, the small fishes plucked at the long hair of the ponies tail trying to get at the food that was in the mud, and as the pony finally emerged from the river, it found that its tail looked exactly like that of the buffalo, all the long hair gone except for the tuft on the end. Oh how happy was the little white pony. Just wait until my friends see this, he thought, now I surely will be different.
On its way back to the herd, the white pony met a jack rabbit, and seeing its long ears, thought, Boy I would really stand out if I had ears like that. So it asked the Jack Rabbit, “Hey, how can I get long ears like yours?”
The jack rabbit just looked at him and tried to hop away, but the white pony was insistant. Finally the Jack Rabbit pointed up at a high bluff where a thorn tree grew, saying, “If you really want ears like mine, then go up to that bluff and stick your head through that thorn bush, stand there all night praying in the cold wind , and maybe you will get them.”
So the little white pony did as directed. As it put its head through the thorn bush, the thorns caught at its ears stretching them and it stood all night praying as the freezing wind blew into its face. And sure enough in the morning its ears were made to be just as the jack rabbit’s, long and straight.
Oh how happy was the white pony as it headed back toward the herd. I will really stand out in the crowd now, it thought.
But before it came back to the herd it met a Raven. Upon hearing the raven’s loud voice going “Caw, Caw, Caw!”, The little white pony thought, boy it would be nice to have a voice that loud, then I would really stand out amongst the rest of the herd. So he badgered the raven, asking continually how it too could obtain such a loud voice.
Finally the raven replied saying, “It takes much practice, first you must go down into the valley where you can hear the echoes, then practice long and hard.”
And so the white pony went into the valley and practiced and practiced for days, but a ponies voice is not like the ravens, and the best it could do was a “ee-Haw!” But the white pony decided this was good enough. Thus it went to show off all it’s differences to the rest of the herd. But things didn’t turn out the way it had figured. The herd upon seeing it, turned their backs on the unfortunate white pony, leaving it to stand upon the outskirts crying Hee-Haw! Hee-Haw!
Now the moral of this story is pretty obvious. Perhaps it is for those wanna-bees. If you can’t be happy with what you are, don’t be surprised that when you try to be something else, that may eventually make an ass out of yourself and find noone will accept you!
Blue Turtle
