NOTE: This was WAY too long so I had to cut in down into 2 parts. For those of you who haven’t fallen asleep by this longwinded fable, Part 2 will be posted tomorrow.
Every time someone I’ve elected to trust ends up showing me their true colors, the first thing I think of is the punch line from that quaint little fable of wisdom I first heard during a scene in the movie Natural Born Killers.
Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis are on that reservation getting high on peyote with an old Indian wise man, who tells them this story -
“A woman found a rattlesnake frozen and half dead with cold. Feeling sorry for it, she took it home and tried to nurse it back to health. She gave it medicine, warmed it by the fire, made sure it was clean and comfortable. She did this for weeks, until finally, the snake was restored to perfect health.
One day, after the snake had gained it’s strength back, she picked it up to feed it and it struck out at her and bit her on the hand – poisoning her. As she lay writing in agony, she looked at it, confused and hurt, and asked, “How could you do this to me? You were almost dead and I rescued you, cleaned up, warmed you by the fire, and fed you. Without me you would have died! You should be grateful and love me, but instead you bite me with your poisonous fangs, and now, because of you I will die!
Well, the snake looked back at her, equally confused by her question, and answered as honestly as it could, “Bitch, you KNEW I was a snake”.
What’s my point? Just this – Most of us have had times when we’ve elected to take someone under our wings when everyone else was against them. Maybe we’ve loaned them money or let them stay with us. Supported them in some way when they were down. Showed them love and kindness, warmed them by the fire and fed them – whatever. And, most of us were probably convinced that our love and kindness would rub off on them and they would love us and treat us the same way in return. And we had faith in this feeling – until the the day they bit us with their poison.
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