Member-only story
Are you the tortoise or the hare?
As I awoke this morning, a familiar tall tale echoed through my mind. You may remember the one about a race between a hare and a tortoise?
They started at the same place, but as the race began, the hare bounded ahead, full of energy and gumption to be the winner. The tortoise started off slow, moving one foot in front of the other.
Eventually, the hare realized that he was so far ahead, that he could stop to play and frolic. Meanwhile the tortoise plodded on, at the same pace and rhythm — 1, 2, 3, 4.
Over and over, the hare rushed ahead, gaining valuable ground, then stopped to graze and play. The tortoise never wavered in her consistency.
According to this story, the hare got so far ahead that he became confident of the win. He became complacent and didn’t really try because he was certain he was faster than the tortoise.
Spoiler: in the end, the tortoise, who kept putting one foot in front of the other, crossed the finish line to the great surprise of the hare. The moral I heard as a child was slow and steady wins the race.
