It’s all a matter of perspective.
In the story “The Three Little Pigs,” the wolf is hungry and attempts to capture and eat them. The pigs devise ways to avoid capture. The first two pigs were not prepared well and wound up in the house of brick built by the third pig. But why do we consider the wolf “bad” simply because it was his nature to be carnivorous? Pigs, on the other hand, are, well, pigs! They scarf their food and love wallowing around in filth. So what makes them any less “bad?”
The same is true with a wolf and sheep. The sheep are cute and docile while the wolf is a predator. So then, the wolf in story telling is, again, “bad.” It is the story-teller’s perspective which persuades us that a creature, often in an allegorical sense, is either good or bad.
Propaganda that emanates from both sides of the conflict during a period of war is the same. One side is made to look bad while the other side is the good guy. It all depends on which side you are on as to what you want to believe. One side is the victim that fights to protect its possessions and life, while the other side is the Big Bad Wolf, a predator out to devour the docile, peace-loving sheep.
In the corporate world, it’s a “them versus us” mentality of management and labor. Even at good old NEIU it’s socially aware, conscientious students against a lethargic and self-serving administration. Although from another viewpoint, it may be more of an unjustly maligned, unappreciated administration against a bunch of immature, idealistic malcontents. It’s all a matter of perspective.
Pigs are pigs, wolves are wolves and sheep are sheep. They cannot be anything else. That is their nature. But we don’t have to act like animals because we have two natures. That’s right, two. We can do what the animals cannot. We can aspire to a higher level of existence.
We can live in our human nature at two levels, both being self-gratifying. The basic: eat, drink, clothing and shelter. That’s what the animals have. But we can also ascend to the arts: Music, painting, theater, writing, science. We can enjoy these subjects and even educate ourselves in them. If we keep going, we can awaken our spirit within, entering into a third super-natural level, and soar to even greater heights communing with creation and the universe. We can connect with the Creator and become self-fulfilled.
Yeah, the Old Man is on the spiritual kick again; trust me, I would not share this with you if I did not believe in and experience daily that of which I speak. You can be a child of nature or, and even better, a child of God. Being spiritual does not mean that you stop living in the world. We are consigned to this planet; even though we must live in this world, we do not have to be a part of it in believing that there is nothing else. We must step out from among the animals.
Just like the three little pigs, there are three levels of human existence. The house of straw which is our basic human nature; the house of sticks, which is the enlightened human nature of the Arts and Sciences, and the house of brick, which is the spiritual, and strongest, nature of our being. The Big Bad Wolf can blow away the first two because he is also of the carnal, but he can huff and puff all he wants and cannot destroy that which is spiritual because it is infinitely enduring.
No, there is nothing wrong with being a wolf if that is your nature, and if we do not enter into and experience the spiritual side of our existence, then we are no different than these creatures of habit. Discovering your spiritual side will allow you to see things much differently and far more clearly. After all, it’s a matter of perspective.