Frog and Scorpion

Over time, I have found real value in many of the childhood stories we learnt as children.

People listen too much to words. Words are easy to express and oftentimes easy to fake. Actions take more effort and are hard to fake. Actions need commitment by the person and words do not always require that.

In this fable, the scorpion wants to cross the river and asks the frog for a ride. The frog says that he would not do that because the scorpion would sting him. The scorpion, that would not happen and it would not sting the frog. In the middle of the ride, the scorpion stings the frog and they both die.

Some interpret this fable to mean that people are always who they are don’t change. I look at it as the difference between the scorpion’s words and actions. The scorpion gave its word but did not act accordingly.

We are seeing evidence that even babies and animals know how to lie. The benefits of not living to your word can be very significant. And as humans we also have the extra ability to rationalize our need to change our mind and not keep our word. Keeping your word is not the easy option for us. Most of the time we may not even know that we are doing something entirely different than what we said. We have used contracts and laws to try to make our words mean more, but most of the world is not run by law.

In all situations provide more weight to actions than words. And if actions and words don’t agree always trust actions.