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(I must say, I cannot take credit for this.   One day, while channel surfing, I came across our PBS station, which was showing a kid’s program.  What attracted my attention were the colorful clothes this African gentleman was wearing.  Then I heard him tell this story… - paraphrased.)

 

There was this tribe, it lived in the jungle and stored its food in gourds, which were hung from the tree branches.  Lately however, monkeys were coming in the dead of night to steal the food from the gourds.  This made the villagers quite angry and very frustrated.  They tried to catch the monkeys, but the monkeys were just too darn fast.

 

That is, until one morning, when a certain villager awoke with an epiphany.  So, he went and appropriated a specific gourd from the garden and began cutting out the hole in the top.  As he scooped out the guts, his fellow tribesman ridiculed him.  "We already know it is the monkeys who are stealing our food.  What good will making another storage gourd do?"

 

The certain man was unaffected.  He finished making his food storage device and then placed some rather large chunks of food inside.  Then he secured it with a rope halfway up a nearby tree.  "There, that should do it."

 

His fellow villagers spent that day shaking their heads every time they walked by that tree and looked up.

 

Well, darkness came and everyone fell asleep, not giving another thought to that silly gourd.  Then, in early, early morning a shriek was heard coming from the trees.  A monkey had come by to steal a little breakfast, but found itself trapped inside the gourd, which was secured to the tree.

 

All the villagers quickly scurried out of their huts to see what was happening.  The certain man knew and he grabbed a rather large club. 

 

And what was the epiphany that this certain villager had, which made him see the light and resulted in him making this trap?  That the size of a hand is ALWAYS LARGER when it's holding onto something.  Therefore, he cut the opening in the gourd only big enough for the oversized chunks of food or the hand - BUT NOT BOTH.  He called it a “sucker trap.”

 

So now, we have a monkey, stuck in a gourd with its hand full of food, that it absolutely refuses to release.  If it were to release the food, it could safely run away to steal another day.  But this day, this monkey acted just like a monkey.  You see, monkeys DON'T let go, they hang on.  And as this monkey held on tighter and tighter, it witnessed its own demise, its own death, coming its way.  And when that certain man swung that club, the deed was done. 

 

That monkey actually thought that what it was holding onto was more important than its own life.  And the villagers were awestruck and never ridiculed that certain man again.

 

  ----------- end of story -----------

 

And the lesson possibly learned by the other monkeys watching from afar?  That the only way out of a sucker trap is to let go of whatever it is that’s being held onto that's bringing death - that’s bringing great stress.

 

The man with the club is coming.  It may be time to let go. Unless of course, whatever is being held onto is more important than your life.  Sucker.

 

 

Thanks, PBS.