Khalil Gibran: The Tortoise and Hare in Life

“Tortoises can tell you more about the road than hares.” Khalil Gibran.

I want to honor a friend who passed on to the next great adventure in life. Gary Harrison found comfort in the writer Khalil Gibran. He discovered him in prison and multiple times in a drunken stupor, Gary would quote to me words written by Khalil. I did not find them significant at the time. I observed the annunciation of those words simply as the ramblings of a tortured tired alcoholic.  Years later, my rediscovery of Gibran has led me to appreciate even more deeply the times I spent with my friend. 

Time. Depending on the context it can move swiftly or appear to have come to a halt. It is interesting at what points of life and even in a day we are cognizant about time. There are experiences of suffering in which we want time to move quickly and then there are those moments of enjoyment and pleasure when we desire time to come to a halt as we enjoy the beauty of the face, the aroma which dances upon our nostrils, or music upon our ears. We should want to take time and pay attention to what excites our senses. The precarious nature of Life should lead us to stop running or even briskly walking because of what can be missed. 

​A tortoise approach to life is not bad for our mental, emotional, or physical wellbeing. The ability to move slowly and dare I say pause, can offer the opportunities to see a little bit more clearly.  When I move fast, I will miss things. Variables which if I had taken the “time” to pay attention would have offered me more information to make a better decision or chosen different words. I can move like the hare. I can swiftly and decisively but is that or will that always be the case? My culture celebrates the hare because it appears flashy, exciting, and the take charge personality. The hare moves bounding from one point to the next arriving at its destination with the appearance of strength. Yet what if, over the journey, the hare missed the “why” of the journey? What if over the race of life, the tortoise discovered the answer to one of those profound questions such as “Why are we on this road to begin with?” Or “Why is this journey even framed as a competition?” Gibran saw a lesson of life in the slow moving tortoise which can be a helpful instructive to human beings, especially in the West. Slow down. Yes, accomplish what you have set as goals and move towards those goals not with break neck speed all the time.

Take moments to slow down, breathe, study the blade of grass, and the uneven nature of the road. The wise man or woman who has a better knowledge of the road will know when to move like a tortoise and then like a hare.