The fly who thought she was the captain

A poor donkey had been patiently carrying his heavy load all day long without a moment of respite. He had not even been allowed to stop to pee. Finally, his owner reached his destination, and the donkey was relieved of the merchandise heaped on his back. Free at last from his burden, the beast happily emptied his full bladder.

A short distance away, a tiny fly was resting on a leaf lying on the ground.

The donkey’s urine, flowing downstream, began to carry the leaf with the fly on it. The fly was initially taken aback, not quite understanding what was happening. After a little while, though, she began to believe: “I’m sailing away on the sea. I’m the captain of this ship, and what a perfectly seasoned navigator I am! Who dares to stop me now?”

The fly was gloating in her pride, floating on the stream of urine, believing that she was sailing the seven seas. Unbeknown to her, she was still the same lowly fly she’d always been, driven along by the furious pace of the urines flow, unaware that nothing truly is as it seems.

Source: The Book of Rumi translated by Maryam Mafi

I love Rumi’s work for endless reasons. One of them is that Rumi does not bring the reader to a resolve.

Whether we read a book, visit a museum, watch a movie, or review a report, the meaning that we make will never be the same as what the author wants to say.

I’m tempted to come up with a whole lot of learnings from this story but I’ll leave it open for you to draw yours.

I’ve been guilty of offering solutions in the past but I realise that the path to fostering learning and unlearning is to end stories with question marks.

What meaning do you take from this story?