What is the point?

Some time ago, I happened to be in the presence of two highly educated people who were discussing an old fable by Aesop.

It was the one about the arrogant lion who is holding the forest to ransom. He demands that unless one creature willingly becomes his food everyday, he will go on a rampage and kill all animals.

The animals, keeping the greater good in mind, agree to this.

Things go according to the plan (some plan, eh? reminds you of what the Joker said about plans, doesn't it?) until one day a smart rabbit goes to the lion and convinces him that there is another like him in the forest.

The lion, enraged, demands to be taken to the imposter. The rabbit takes him to the well and shows him his image in the water. The lion is furious and roars at it. The well echoes his roar. Eventually the dumbass carnivore jumps into the well to finish the imposter in his head.

That was the story. But you know what the highly educated people were debating? They were disagreeing about whether it was a smart rabbit or a clever jackal that did the lion in.

This is what we do to religion, don't we? To religion, and to God, and to our heroes, and to our laws.

We are taught to analyse everything. We end up analysing the shit out of everything. We read so much into stories that they remain little more than plain text to us.

And while we do this, the meaning - the whole point of it - the reason why Aesop felt compelled to tell the story in the first place, lies unnoticed some distance to our left.