in which the parts are greater than the whole

I am going to read you a story.  Actually, I’m not just going to read it.  I am going to use ‘props’…..

It is a fable (that’s a story with a moral, or lesson*) from India and the version I am going to tell you was written by Clare Boucher.  It is called “The Six Blind Men and the Elephant”.

As I am reading it, I want you to look as well as listen carefully to what each man thinks an elephant is like. 

The six blind men lived in a village by a river in India.  They could not see but they could touch and feel and hear and talk.  They spent their days in the shade of a neem tree, talking of many things.

One day, a little boy ran towards where they were sitting.  ‘There’s an elephant down by the river,’ he shouted.

‘An elephant,’ said one of the blind men.  ‘What is an elephant?’

‘I don’t know,’ replied his friend.

‘What is an elephant like?’ asked a third.

‘I am sure I don’t know,’ said another.

Why, I wondered, do you think none of them knows what an elephant is like?

Melchior has an idea.  ‘Because they are blind and they never saw one,’ he suggests.

So – what do you think they will do to find out?

To this, Yanis replies.  ‘They could feel it,’ he says.

Time, I think, to continue with my tale.

The first man touched the elephant.  He touched its trunk. 

He could not see it but he could feel it.  ‘Ah,’ he said.  Now I know what an elephant is like.  It is like long and rubbery like a snake.

Melchior interrupts at this point.  ‘How does he know what a snake looks like?’ he asks. 

Hmm.  Good question.  Has anyone got any ideas?

‘Maybe,’ suggests Bianca, ‘he got blind after he had seen a snake.’  And yes, that is probably what happened…..but still – GOOD question Melchior!  And now can we continue?

The second man touched the elephant.  He touched its tusks.  ‘What are tusks?’ asks Yousouf.

He could not see it but he could feel it.  ‘Ah,’ he said.  Now I know what an elephant is like.  It is sharp and cold like a knife.

The third man touched the elephant.  He touched its ear.

He could not see it but he could feel it.  ‘Ah,’ he said.  Now I know what an elephant is like.  It is smooth and flat like a leaf.

The fourth man touched the elephant.  He touched its leg.

He could not see it but he could feel it.  ‘Ah,’ he said.  Now I know what an elephant is like.  It is round and hard like a tree.

The fifth man touched the elephant.  He touched its side.

He could not see it but he could feel it.  ‘Ah,’ he said.  Now I know what an elephant is like.  It is high and wide like a wall.

 

The sixth man touched the elephant.  He touched its tail.

He could not see it but he could feel it.  ‘Ah,’ he said.  Now I know what an elephant is like.  It is long and thin like a rope.

So of course, all the men had a different idea of what an elephant is like because they had all touched a different part of the elephant.  They began to shout at one another.

‘No, no, no.  I am right and YOU are wrong!’  They argued and argued.

‘Excuse me!’ said a big soft elephanty voice…..

’No-one is wrong; you are all right.  My trunk is like a snake.

My tusks are like knives.  My ears are like leaves.  My legs are like trees.  My sides are like walls and my tail is like a rope.’

So even though no-one was wrong, each man had only felt a part of the elephant and so only knows what that part is like.  But together they do know what an elephant is like!  It took the elephant herself to make them stop arguing and realise that. 

And the ‘lesson’ is that we may know a bit of the truth but not the whole truth and that we should learn to ‘see’ things from a different perspective and be tolerant of other people’s views.