The Fable of the Stork

"How can you say, 'Surely, this bird is a demon'?"

"You!" the man said, beginning his address to the couple that had condemned the stork, "How can you say, 'Surely, this bird is a demon'? Have you not laid eyes upon the stork? The majesty of this creature is evident even to the most ignorant of men. What, then, could possibly be your reason for saying, 'Surely, this bird is a demon'? Are you so ignorant? No, you are without excuse. Furthermore, do you not desire a child? And do you not regard children as a good and precious gift? How, then, can you say that the stork is evil, though children proceed from it? Goodness cannot proceed from evil; no, only evil proceeds from evil, and good from good. So you contradict yourselves, because you say that the stork is evil, while at the same time affirming the goodness of the gifts that proceed from it."

"Do you not know what this bird has done?" the couple began with their counter argument. "That couple over there invited this stork into their home, and in return, the stork attacked them and fled. We know that this is true, for several witnesses testified to it. How, then, can you say that this bird is good? Clearly, no man ought to invite this violent beast into their home as their own. Anyone who does so is a fool, and will certainly receive the penalty for their association with this demon. The world would certainly be better if men left it alone, and better still if it were eradicated entirely."

"You said that witnesses testified to what this bird did to that couple over there. Well, did those same witnesses testify to what the couple did to the stork beforehand? That couple over there teased and tortured this stork. They exploited its true nature in exchange for baseless and sensuous pleasure, even to the point of inviting their neighbors over to enjoy it with them. How, then, can you insult the nature of this stork by implying that, by attacking the man and the woman, it repaid good for evil? Why do you take its violence as a sign of evil? Why not, rather, take it as a sign of the stork's righteousness and purity? On this point, we are well agreed: that what men and women sow in the stork, that also will they reap from the stork. Those who sow love and commitment in the stork, will reap pleasure and joy from it, and those who sow exploitation and titillation in the stork, will reap many wounds from it, as well as baseless, senseless pleasure. Yet you, in your self-deception, insist that nothing good can be reaped from the stork whatsoever! Can you really be so foolish?"

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