By this time, Sam the baby seal had grown up enough to find its own
food. So that morning, mama seal told Sam, "Sam, we are going to go fishing together
today. You have grown up enough that you no longer need me to feed you. You can catch your
own fish and eat it without any help from me."
Sam was a little excited and a little anxious. He said to his mom, "but mom, I don’t know how to fish, and I don’t know which fish to catch."
Mama seal smiled and said, "not to worry Sam. First you must realize that as a seal, you are born with the ability to fish, just like you can walk and swim. But you must also develop that ability, just like when you first started to walk and swim. Finally, the way to develop this ability is very simple, but it takes a lot of attention and practice.
"First, you must listen very carefully to the things that I teach you and understand them the best way that you can. Then you must evaluate them carefully. That means you have to decide for yourself if the things that I say make any sense to you or not, if they are wise and practical or not. And then you must choose wisely, which ones to apply and practice, and which ones to forget about.
"If you choose wisely, you will learn how to fish, very quickly, and you will be well fed. If you choose the wrong things, there will be many days and nights that you will go hungry, and this will continue until you correct your ways and choose wisely."
Sam said, "but that needs a lot of thinking and being alert."
"That’s right!" replied mama seal. "I can share
the things that I know, with you. I can teach you all the techniques that I know, I can
tell you which fish to catch and which ones not to. But ultimately, you will have to
choose for yourself. You will have to decide what to do. And then you act on those
decisions and experiment with many things. If they make sense to you and the results are
good, then you make them part of your knowledge and the way you live. If they don’t
make sense, or they don’t have good results, then you learn and eliminate those
things from your way of living.
"For example, if you catch a lot fish that you like, then you
continue to do similar things. But if you don’t catch much fish, or if the fish that
you catch don’t taste too good, then you learn not to catch that fish and to do
something different. I can help you by teaching you, son. But you need to listen, and you
must choose. So listen carefully, and choose wisely."
Ó Shahriar
Shahriari
Vancouver Canada
August 13, 1998
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