The Panda & The Fox

      Pandas like to sit and eat and be quiet and enjoy the surroundings.  Pandas like to look pretty and be cute and enjoy being cuddleable.  Pandas like things to just be.

     

      Then along comes the Fox.  Foxes like to play and run around and spit on flowers and watch bugs run scared as they try to eat ‘em.  Foxes like to bite when they play, roll around in the grass and get dirty and then take naps before they get grumpy.  Foxes like to find hounds and instigate a hunt and run and jump and hide.

     

      So the Fox meets the Panda and the Panda extends some bamboo and the Fox does not accept the offer.  The Panda offers a seat in the comfortable grass to enjoy the breeze and the Fox doesn’t want to sit.  The Panda offers a drink from the river and the Fox jumps in it and makes a big splash getting everything wet, even the Panda.  The Panda has never seen such a creature be so everywhere and even though the Panda should be annoyed the Panda was very intrigued by the Fox’s style and weirdness that the Panda decides to extend friendship to the Fox and even though the Fox had denied everything else the Fox accepts the paw in friendship.

     

      The Panda learns to run about and play and enjoy what the Fox does and sees that there was more to the surroundings than them being something to just stare at.  The Fox learns that sitting is ok and enjoying bamboo is possible.  Exact opposites in so many ways the one thing that kept them as friends was their loyalty.  And so it was wherever the Fox was even if it was in the water splashing and spiting on flowers one was sure the Panda was nearby and if the Panda was sitting in the grass enjoying the cool breeze and the open sun the Fox was somewhere nearby.  It was something the other animals grew to understand and appreciate and even, at times, emulate.

     

      Then one day they didn’t do the same thing when the other wanted to do it.  One day the Panda was just sitting in the grass enjoying bamboo and the Fox didn’t want to.  It was not the way of the Panda and the Fox to readily agree on what they wanted to do, but at least they agreed to do one thing and then another like a compromise of sorts.  But that didn’t this time and as the Panda was enjoying the surroundings the Fox was playing about.  The Fox jumped around the Panda and the Panda was insistent on the Fox to be calm.  The Fox was instant that it was a time to play and calm was just too boring.  They wouldn’t agree.

     

      So the Fox bounced about and all around the Panda to try to encourage the Panda to join in.  The Panda just sat and gnawed on the bamboo.  The Fox bounced more and more and closer and closer.  The Panda didn’t budge and just gnawed. The Fox didn’t calm down. Closer and closer the Fox got, but the Panda paid no mind and then the Fox jumped and hit the Panda in the face with a paw that had the nails that were not clipped due to the Fox’s need to always move about.

     

      The Fox finally stopped and calmed down.  The Panda started to jump about and wave the unfinished bamboo around.  The Fox lowered down into the grass watching as the Panda moved and moved and waved and waved.  The Fox would move as the Panda did but was afraid that the Panda would use the bamboo to retaliate for the accident.  The Fox waited and the Panda just kept bouncing and waving and bouncing until the Panda decided that this spot the Panda sat at to enjoy the surroundings was no longer a spot that was good for that and left.

     

      The Fox wrapped the tail around and hid behind it and waited for the Panda to return.  This was the Panda’s spot.  The Panda would come back.  The Panda always came back.  The Fox waited and waited and waited in the grass just as the Panda had done and asked for the Fox to do just to enjoy the surroundings, but the Fox was not enjoying anything for the Panda was not there.

     

      The Panda ran further and further away so annoyed that the Fox would be so brazen with the paw and the unclipped claws.  The Panda clipped the paws and the claws by using a tree.  Why was it so hard for the Fox to do the same? The Panda was enjoying the burst of energy the running provided and realized that the Fox had shown this manner of fun and the Panda slowed down and breathed heavily and looked around but the Fox was not there.

     

      The Fox waited.  The Panda waited.  Neither saw the other for they were where they didn’t want to be because they were too busy being “me”.  The Fox decided to walk away.  The Panda decided to walk back.  Eventually they met in the middle and they sat and stared at one another. 

     

      The Panda offered bamboo and the Fox declined.  The Panda offered a patch of grass closer by and the Fox declined.  The Panda offered a drink from one of the leaves that had collected rain water and the Fox declined.  The Panda extends a paw in friendship and again the Fox accepts.

     

     

      The Moral of the story: Our perception is ours to see and makes us “me”.  To take the time to see from another’s gives us more than just one, it gives us “we”.