| Choice |
January 23, 2017
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| He was walking in the forest. He came to an intersection. It separated into two roads. There was a wooden sign in the center of the intersection. The sign read, 'happy' with an arrow pointing to the right, and 'unhappy' with another arrow pointing to the left. The sign was new and the letters looked like they were written by a small kid. He thought this was a joke. He checked his map. His map showed that the road would cross again after a certain distance. He thought for a while, and started to walk on the 'unhappy' road. Soon a bear appeared and surprisingly the bear spoke, he said, "You will be unhappy, because I'll attack you." The man shouted, "Wait! I suppose you are a smart bear. May I ask why you thought I chose this road?" The bear thought a little and asked, "Why did you choose this way?" The man replied, "I thought that people would usually avoid the 'unhappy' course because they think it would be an evil omen. And the person who made that sign must have thought that people would choose the 'happy' course. The person, for example a criminal, would be waiting on that course, I thought." The bear said, "That was what I thought." The bear came closer to him. The guy  shouted, "Wait! So did you make that sign?" The bear nodded. The guy asked, "So, what number am I?" The bear looked uncomfortable and said, "You are the first." The guy said, "What? All of the others chose the 'happy' way?" The bear said, "Yes. I thought about the reason. Humans have a sense of vanity. If they actively chose 'unhappy', they would be nuts. And, they don't want to be nuts. It's humiliating." The man said, "Maybe I am nuts." The bear nodded but showed sympathy this time. The guy didn't miss it. The guy asked, "But, in the first place, why did you think about this elaborate trap? You can just attack anyone you want, anywhere." The bear started to explain: He and other bears had been living on the mountain, and avoided contact with humans. But recently because of the abnormal climate, their main food, beech trees' acorns, didn't grow well. And so, they had to go down to the human living area for food, and now sometimes encountered humans. They can't control their instinctive reaction, and sometimes hurt people. Humans used traps, and his fellow bears have been caught and killed. He wanted to get revenge by using a trap. "And I was the only unlucky man." The guy sighed. The bear seemed to feel a pity for the man. The bear said, "I think that people who chose that way were just lazy to think, and chose the easier way, like 'I like happiness so I'll choose this way.' Different from them, you are a good thinker." The bear continued, "Actually, I'm not so hungry now. Originally, I didn't want to hurt people. I just wanted to have revenge. But, I know that revenge will not result in anything. If you give me some solution for this situation, I can overlook you." The man was an honest person. He said, "I'm sorry but I can't change global warming. I don't think that you wild animals can change your eating habits easily. The only thing that I can do is to plant more young beech trees. And it will take a long time until the young trees can produce acorns. Before that you'll die. And, of course, you can't get any proof from me that I will do this." The bear was listening to him and said, "I can get proof. I can read and write as you now know. If you write what you said on paper, we can make a contract." The man couldn't believe that the bear would give such an offer. Of course, he had no choice. He said, "Ok. As I have a habit to sketch nature, I always bring this with me." He took out his sketchbook and a piece of crayon, and started to write. He wrote two identical pieces, as follows: 'I (his name) and the bear (the bear's name (he had a name)) are in an agreement that I (his name) will plant as many as young beech trees in this place (the name of this place) as long as I live and the bear (the name) won't attack me (his name). (date)' He showed the papers to the bear, and the bear nodded. The bear received the crayon and signed both pieces of paper. The guy signed and folded them and held one of them out to the bear. The bear shook his head and said, "I can't keep this because I live in nature. Please keep it instead of me." The guy looked at the bear to make sure that the bear understood the meaning of it. The bear nodded solemnly and smiled. The bear left. The man was standing holding the two contract papers. He was thinking where he should go to get permission for this project. |
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*vanity: hS
*instinctive: {\IΘ
*overlook: ©¦·
*identical: ―κΜ
*solemnly: ΅lΙ