The Shephard & the Sheep

Written by Mathew Naismith

I’m not a story writer by far so please excuse any syntax errors.  

“What are we doing, where are we going, is it important?” said the Shepherd to the sheep, “Does it matter” replies one of the sheep, “we are all sheep waiting for time to pass so we can go home”.  “What” said the Shepherd, ‘we are not all sheep, I have no wool on my back or am I one of the flock as you are. The sheep looked down & up again shaking it’s head, “you say you have no wool on your back because you are not a sheep but you are wearing my coat that has been carried for you upon my back. You say you are not of our flock but you are my friend, we all belong to the same flock until the day’s end & this my friend will never happen”.

The Shepherd was bemused in a funny way to what the sheep had said. Smiling “I’m not of you as you are not of me, we are different “said the shepherd, “how can I be of your flock when I’m not like you?”  “Nothing is the same” said the sheep, “we are all different even us sheep to each other but that doesn’t make us not a part of the same flock”.  The shepherd even more bemused in rapture thinking that the sheep is wrong, “I am a part of the human flock, you are a part of the sheep flock, what is the same between us? Once you pass you will go to where the sheep lay, I will go to where the humans lay, that is very different  wouldn’t you say?” “No” said the sheep “there is but one flock upon this Earth & it’s called eternal life”.

Becoming slightly irritated now because of the sheep’s stance the shepherd replied back to the sheep, “you are utterly wrong, SHEEP, we are masters of all life so how can we be a part of the same flock laying down in the same pastures after our passing, this is foolish to think this but what can you expect from stupid sheep I suppose!!” Undeterred the sheep replies, “Who is more foolish, the sheep talking to a human or a human talking to a sheep? Bemused in an even more perplexed & irritated at the sheep’s response the shepherd replies, “You think you are clever but you’re not, you are my flock I’m not yours, if you were so clever why am I not of your flock?”

Smiling as only a sheep can, “What is it riding on your back again”!!

Recently I posted my post titled A Wise Man Wise on a spiritual site I’ve never been on before, before I even got a chance to respond a few of the people on this particular site were arguing quite intensely between each other about my post.  Anyway me being me I thought maybe it’s not always like this, how wrong was I.

As the shepherd had obvious little respect for the sheep, these people were quite aggressively & destructively criticising each other & the post, making comments on my own post only escalated this unbecoming behaviour. I really didn’t think people on a spiritual site would be so disrespectful of each other’s views in such away.  Sheep we are not for the sheep from the story above know we are all different but of the same flock no matter how different we seemed but the shepherd thinking he is above such creatures couldn’t see this.

Eventually everything I wrote after this on this site became a target for destructive criticism. I don’t mind constructive criticism but to be on the receiving end of so much destructive criticism was very disappointing for me. As in the story, the sheep had a freer way of thinking than the human but this ended up infuriating the shepherd because he thought he was right but especially in the end the free thinker within it’s wisdom proved a very good point.  The story ended there, not because the shepherd didn’t have an answer only because what would the point be in listening to more pointless arguments.  I could imagine the sheep just walking away bewildered at the short falls of the shepherd.

One of the points to the story is voice your free thinking, we can’t & don’t all think the same but it does no harm to speak out if by any chance you can help others become aware of what you’re aware of.  Maybe we can help or maybe we can’t but one should always give it a try to help others become aware of something they may not be aware of but should be aware of.