knowing yourself sounds like a good idea
but it can be hard to see quite why it
should matter so much there are some
clues in an old story about a lion with
a sore paw a traditional folk tale known
as Androcles and the lion the earliest
version of the story comes from the
ancient Roman philosopher Ollis galius
and has been adapted and retold ever
since one version goes like this once
long ago there was a Barbary lion nine
feet long with a splendid dark mane
who lived in the forested foothills of
the Atlas Mountains in what is today
Algeria usually the lion kept far from
human settlements but one year in spring
he started approaching the villages at
night roaring and snarling menacingly in
the dark the villagers were terrified
they put extra guards on the gates and
sent out heavily armed hunting parties
to try to kill him it happened around
this time that a shepherd boy named
Androcles followed his sheep far into
the high mountain pastures one cold
evening he sought shelter in a cave
he had just lit a candle and was setting
his blanket on the ground when to his
horror he saw the ferocious beasts
staring at him at first he was terrified
the lion looked as if it might be about
to pounce on him and rip him to pieces
but Androcles noticed something there
was a thorn deeply embedded in one of
the Lions front paws and a huge tear was
running down his noble face the creature
wasn’t murderous it was in agony so
instead of trying to flee or defend
himself with his dagger
the boys fear changed a pity Androcles
approached the lion stroked his mane and
then gently and reassuringly extracted
the thorn from the poor and wrapped it
in a strip of cloth torn from his own
blanket the lion licked the boy’s hand
and became his friend many years later
Androcles got into trouble with the
authorities he was shipped to Rome taken
to the Colosseum and thrown before a
lion to be devoured in public for the
pleasure of the people in the Emperor
but when the lion saw Androcles he
became quiet and went forward and
lowered his head in a bow it was the
same Barbary lion
Androcles had taken pity on as a boy the
emperor pardoned Andrew Cleese and he
and his lion lived together in
Rome and they used to go for walks
together through the streets with a lion
peaceable and contented led only on a
slender leash the fable can usefully be
read as an allegory about self-knowledge
the lion is in terrible pain
but has no capacity to understand what
is hurting him exactly and how he might
put it right in his blind distress he
acts in horrific ly aggressive in
threatening ways he makes blood-curdling
noises and frightens everyone the lion
is all of us when we lack insight into
our own distress the thorn is a
troubling maddening element of our inner
lives a fear a biting worry a regret a
sense of guilt a feeling of humiliation
a strained hope or agonize
disappointment that rumbles away
powerfully but just out of range of our
standard view of ourselves but there’s
potentially another Androcles like side
of us Abel calmly to see past the fury
to what the problem really is and then
calm are untargeted anger and help us
find constructive solutions however it’s
not always easy some of the following
can happen when we try to locate the
stubborn thorn we make the wrong
diagnosis of what’s upsetting us we’re
in no doubt we’re in pain but we don’t
correctly attribute the source of the
distress we lash out at innocents
usually the kindest people around us
perhaps we start getting around our
partners we accuse them of being dull
and obsessed with domestic trivia and
not as much fun as they once were but
the thorn might in fact lie elsewhere
entirely maybe there’s a lovely new
colleague at work and awkwardly we’ve
developed a sort of crush on them
we don’t even admit to ourselves that
something so unexpected and challenging
might be upsetting us we don’t know
where to look for the thorn but others
close to us who are kind forgiving and
easy targets for our frustration end up
taking the blame nevertheless another
option is that we try to ignore the pain
when the poor hurts too much in ways we
don’t grasp it’s tempting to try to numb
our distress we search out of
anaesthetic that can reduce the
discomfort but fails to address its
causes we might take to drinking playing
non-stop games of solitaire watching
porn or working obsessively The Thorn is
still firmly lodged in place but we
notice it less
and yet the numbing move extracts a high
price it eats away at our time
undermines our self-respect or leads to
debilitating symptoms we might not be
able to sleep insomnia often being
traceable to the turbulent impact of
issues we haven’t paid proper attention
to during the day or finally we might
apply the wrong medicine we might come
up with unfounded confused schemes to
solve a pain we don’t understand we may
take to blaming our partner the city we
live in the government or our employer
rifling through a cabinet of cures we
might pick a journey to the desert or a
quick divorce we decide to quit our jobs
or sack someone it can be hard not to
inflict severe pain on ourselves or
others when we don’t have an accurate
handle on our own Agony’s fortunately
there is almost always information to
hand about what is really wrong our
stream of consciousness contains a
reservoir of muddled hints about our
woes which need to be gathered and
decoded the art of living is to a large
measure dependent on an ability to
locate our thorns accurately and in good
time so that we will not forever be
condemned to suffer our symptoms and terrify strangers with our roars
but it can be hard to see quite why it
should matter so much there are some
clues in an old story about a lion with
a sore paw a traditional folk tale known
as Androcles and the lion the earliest
version of the story comes from the
ancient Roman philosopher Ollis galius
and has been adapted and retold ever
since one version goes like this once
long ago there was a Barbary lion nine
feet long with a splendid dark mane
who lived in the forested foothills of
the Atlas Mountains in what is today
Algeria usually the lion kept far from
human settlements but one year in spring
he started approaching the villages at
night roaring and snarling menacingly in
the dark the villagers were terrified
they put extra guards on the gates and
sent out heavily armed hunting parties
to try to kill him it happened around
this time that a shepherd boy named
Androcles followed his sheep far into
the high mountain pastures one cold
evening he sought shelter in a cave
he had just lit a candle and was setting
his blanket on the ground when to his
horror he saw the ferocious beasts
staring at him at first he was terrified
the lion looked as if it might be about
to pounce on him and rip him to pieces
but Androcles noticed something there
was a thorn deeply embedded in one of
the Lions front paws and a huge tear was
running down his noble face the creature
wasn’t murderous it was in agony so
instead of trying to flee or defend
himself with his dagger
the boys fear changed a pity Androcles
approached the lion stroked his mane and
then gently and reassuringly extracted
the thorn from the poor and wrapped it
in a strip of cloth torn from his own
blanket the lion licked the boy’s hand
and became his friend many years later
Androcles got into trouble with the
authorities he was shipped to Rome taken
to the Colosseum and thrown before a
lion to be devoured in public for the
pleasure of the people in the Emperor
but when the lion saw Androcles he
became quiet and went forward and
lowered his head in a bow it was the
same Barbary lion
Androcles had taken pity on as a boy the
emperor pardoned Andrew Cleese and he
and his lion lived together in
Rome and they used to go for walks
together through the streets with a lion
peaceable and contented led only on a
slender leash the fable can usefully be
read as an allegory about self-knowledge
the lion is in terrible pain
but has no capacity to understand what
is hurting him exactly and how he might
put it right in his blind distress he
acts in horrific ly aggressive in
threatening ways he makes blood-curdling
noises and frightens everyone the lion
is all of us when we lack insight into
our own distress the thorn is a
troubling maddening element of our inner
lives a fear a biting worry a regret a
sense of guilt a feeling of humiliation
a strained hope or agonize
disappointment that rumbles away
powerfully but just out of range of our
standard view of ourselves but there’s
potentially another Androcles like side
of us Abel calmly to see past the fury
to what the problem really is and then
calm are untargeted anger and help us
find constructive solutions however it’s
not always easy some of the following
can happen when we try to locate the
stubborn thorn we make the wrong
diagnosis of what’s upsetting us we’re
in no doubt we’re in pain but we don’t
correctly attribute the source of the
distress we lash out at innocents
usually the kindest people around us
perhaps we start getting around our
partners we accuse them of being dull
and obsessed with domestic trivia and
not as much fun as they once were but
the thorn might in fact lie elsewhere
entirely maybe there’s a lovely new
colleague at work and awkwardly we’ve
developed a sort of crush on them
we don’t even admit to ourselves that
something so unexpected and challenging
might be upsetting us we don’t know
where to look for the thorn but others
close to us who are kind forgiving and
easy targets for our frustration end up
taking the blame nevertheless another
option is that we try to ignore the pain
when the poor hurts too much in ways we
don’t grasp it’s tempting to try to numb
our distress we search out of
anaesthetic that can reduce the
discomfort but fails to address its
causes we might take to drinking playing
non-stop games of solitaire watching
porn or working obsessively The Thorn is
still firmly lodged in place but we
notice it less
and yet the numbing move extracts a high
price it eats away at our time
undermines our self-respect or leads to
debilitating symptoms we might not be
able to sleep insomnia often being
traceable to the turbulent impact of
issues we haven’t paid proper attention
to during the day or finally we might
apply the wrong medicine we might come
up with unfounded confused schemes to
solve a pain we don’t understand we may
take to blaming our partner the city we
live in the government or our employer
rifling through a cabinet of cures we
might pick a journey to the desert or a
quick divorce we decide to quit our jobs
or sack someone it can be hard not to
inflict severe pain on ourselves or
others when we don’t have an accurate
handle on our own Agony’s fortunately
there is almost always information to
hand about what is really wrong our
stream of consciousness contains a
reservoir of muddled hints about our
woes which need to be gathered and
decoded the art of living is to a large
measure dependent on an ability to
locate our thorns accurately and in good
time so that we will not forever be
condemned to suffer our symptoms and terrify strangers with our roars
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