In The Madman: His Parables and Poems, Kahlil Gibran tells of a fox that sees its shadow in the morning and decides he’ll eat a camel for lunch. When he again sees his shadow, it is noon, and the fox decides that a mouse will make a sufficient lunch.
Morning shadows are, like evening shadows, long and large. Steeper angles of a higher sun make shadows shorter and smaller. We make a mistake when we take such shadows for true reflections of size. One wonders whether humans, particularly those who are surrounded by sycophants, take shadows they cast under bright lights of paparazzi and TV cameramen as indicators of their true size and value. Shining from the eye- and near-eye-level of humans, lights cast on idolized humans make very large shadows.
Knowing this, you might be wise not to stand in someone's shadow lest you begin to believe, like the fox, that the shadow truly reflects the size of the shadow-maker. Similarly, turn to those who would stand in your shadow and advise them not only to step into their own light, but also to choose that light which casts a shadow that reflects “true size.”
Morning shadows are, like evening shadows, long and large. Steeper angles of a higher sun make shadows shorter and smaller. We make a mistake when we take such shadows for true reflections of size. One wonders whether humans, particularly those who are surrounded by sycophants, take shadows they cast under bright lights of paparazzi and TV cameramen as indicators of their true size and value. Shining from the eye- and near-eye-level of humans, lights cast on idolized humans make very large shadows.
Knowing this, you might be wise not to stand in someone's shadow lest you begin to believe, like the fox, that the shadow truly reflects the size of the shadow-maker. Similarly, turn to those who would stand in your shadow and advise them not only to step into their own light, but also to choose that light which casts a shadow that reflects “true size.”
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