Self-Deception

It is a part of human nature to judge others very severely and, when wind turns against us, to find an excuse for our own misdeeds, or to blame someone else for our mistakes. The story that follow illustrates what I mean.

A messenger was sent on an urgent mission to a distant city. He saddled up his horse and set off at a gallop. After passing several inns where animals like him were normally fed, the horse thought: ‘We are not stopping to eat at any stable, which means that I’m being treated, not as a horse, but like a human. Like all other humans, I will eat in the next big city we reach.’

But the big cities all passed by, one after the other, and his rider continued on his way. The horse began to think: ‘Perhaps I haven’t been changed into a human being, but into an angel, because angels have no need to eat.’

Finally, they reached their destination and the animals was led to the stable, where he greedily devoured the hay he found there.

‘Why believe that things have changed simply because they do not happen quite the way you expected them?’ the horse said to himself. I’m neither a human nor an angel. I’m simply a hungry horse.

(09-18-2009:0940)