The Tiger and the Gadfly

A tiger prided itself on being the king of the forest. One day, while out hunting, the tiger encountered a buzzing gadfly flying back and forth.

“Don’t bother me under my nose,” the annoyed tiger growled. “Or I’ll eat you!”

“Hehe, just try—if you can catch me,” the gadfly mocked as it landed on the tiger’s nose and started sucking its blood.

The tiger swiped at it, but the gadfly darted to its back, digging into its fur to bite again.

Image Source: ChatGPT

Furious, the tiger thrashed its iron-like tail, trying to shake the pest off. But the gadfly kept moving, biting again and again. The tiger rolled on the ground in frustration, trying to crush the tiny intruder. The gadfly flew off, only to return moments later to the tiger’s face.

In this exhausting fight with something so small, the tiger, king of beasts, eventually died from sheer fatigue.

(Story Source: Harvard Family Education)

Commentary

We are all the ruler of our lives with important things to do, just like the tiger. And we will all encounter annoying distractions like that gadfly. The important thing is how we respond.

It’s not the gadfly that killed the tiger. It’s the tiger’s own anger and lack of self-control. We may laugh or shake our heads at the tiger, but if we don’t have good control over our temper and emotions, then we should really use the tiger’s story to increase our own vigilance. We have to stay focused on what truly matters and not get frustrated over insignificant things, even if they cause inconvenience.

I remember one day, a student had a small emotional breakdown. I asked her what’s wrong. She told me, “The internet in this classroom is too laggy! I can’t even do practice questions! The audio stops every few seconds and I have to wait forever. It’s been like this all day! Even my hotspot is laggy here. How am I supposed to study without good internet!”

I replied, “Indeed having laggy internet is very frustrating. But it isn’t always laggy. I don’t know why it’s so laggy today, but even if your internet is laggy, are there other ways you could prepare for your test? For example, you have lots of downloaded audio files you could listen to, right? You also have PDFs of past exam papers. You don’t HAVE to do an online practice test. Don’t get distracted by obstacles and lose sight of the goal.”

Afterwards, she calmed down a bit and said, “That’s true. I don’t know why I was so dumb and stubborn about using the online test software.”

I said, “When we get frustrated, upset, or have any strong emotions, we tend to lose logic. It’s important to be aware of our emotional state and adjust ourselves promptly when our emotions go out of balance. Don’t sink into negative emotions. That would be our own fault, not the fault of the external matter.”

Conclusion

What kind of “gadflies” have you encountered? How did you deal with them?

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Weekly Wisdom #345