It Is What It Is
Something that has come up in my life twice in less than one month (and not much comes up in my life these days) is this story -- apparently a very old and frequently told story -- about six blind men who wander through a field. The men find a giant something and can’t determine what it is, so they each touch a different part of the thing and argue about what they’re touching. One man touches a large leathery tube and concludes that the thing is a snake, while another man touches a solid, upright surface and concludes that it’s a wall, and still another man touches two oblong flaps and concludes that they're two fans, etc., until each man has reached a different conclusion about the thing. Only when the men walk away from the thing and collaboratively discuss their findings do they realize that they were touching the trunk, side, ears, and other parts of an elephant. This little ditty of a tale is supposed to teach the importance of getting out from your own narrow mindset so that