Zino the Dinosaur

 

Once upon a time, there was a baby dinosaur living in the forest, named Zino. One day, Zino was walking along a path by the river, when he suddenly he heard a tree falling down into the river. He became curious and looked more closely, when he suddenly noticed a beaver.

Zino went up to the beaver and said: "Good morning Mr. Beaver. What happened to that tree?"

Beaver replied, "I just cut it down and pushed it into the river."

Zino became even more curious and asked, "but you are so small, how did you push it down into the river?"

Beaver answered, "With my teeth. I simply chew and chew and chew on the trunk, until the tree falls under its own weight."

Zino was puzzled, so he asked, "But why?"

Beaver said, "Because I want to make a dam in the path of the river. You see Zino, beavers make dams because that is where they live. So I am using these trees to make a home for myself."

This made some sense to Zino, but he had more questions. He asked, "How do you know what to do? How do you go about it? And how did you learn how to build a house?"

Beaver answered, "It is actually very simply, yet it takes a lot of effort. You see Zino, first I go up and down the river, look at every part of the river until I find an ideal spot. If I don’t look at the river closely, I will not be able to build a stable dam. In fact Zino, in any situation it is the same. You must first look at what you have very closely and find out the most ideal situation before you begin any project.

"Then I make a plan of the dam in my mind. I think about it very hard. I use my Good Mind and come up with the best design that I can for the dam.

"And then the hard work starts. I start by cutting one tree down after another. I collect smaller branches and pebbles and rocks to fill in the gaps in my dam, and that takes a lot of dedication and effort.

"But you see Zino, hard work is not enough. When I do that work, I do it with a lot of care and attention. I give it the best quality that I have. Otherwise, I will end up with a mediocre or an inferior result. I can do that because I love my job, and every morning I get excited to get up and build my dam. This is how I build a dam with a very high quality.

"Now, if I do all of these things, if I have found the ideal location and situation, if I have designed my dam the best way I could, if I work hard and with a lot of dedication, and if I put a lot of quality in my work, then I am bound to come up with a great dam, just like I planned it.

"What’s more, because I planned well, my dam will be around for a very long time. So you see Zino, this is how I do it."

Zino thought about this for a short while and then asked, "But don’t you have any accidents and mishaps? Don’t you make any mistakes?"

Beaver said, "sure I do. I am a beaver after all. Plus there are a lot of things that may happen to the river that I can’t control. If suddenly there is a heavy rainfall, it raises the water level in the river, and that can damage what I have built. I can’t control the rain.

"But you see, that does not matter. Because when something like that happens, all I do is go through the same process again. I actually look at the new situation and evaluate all the changes that have taken place. I then come up with a new design, based on what I have built up to now, and then I continue with my work with the same dedication and quality, but this time, I work on building the new design. Eventually, if I focus on this process, I will end up with a dam which matches my new plan and that too will last for a long time."

Zino thought this made sense but he had one more question, "Mr. Beaver, all that sounds good, but your new design is not like the old plan, is it? So you are never going to have the old plan built."

Beaver answered, "that is very true Zino. But that is not necessarily a bad thing. You see, when the damage happens as a result of a mishap or a mistake, I have to think even harder and be more creative. I have to use my Good Mind even more. And often I come up with new ideas that I did not have before. So in reality, my new design can actually end up being an improvement over the old plan. Besides, even when that does not happen, I still can learn from the mistakes that I have made and from what went wrong. And that is always positive because it makes me grow into a better beaver."

Zino thanked Mr. Beaver and mumbled, "maybe if we dinosaurs did the same, we would not be extinct today."

Ó Shahriar Shahriari
Vancouver Canada
August 12, 1998


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