The Hunting Scene
He peered his eyes in the darkness, through the thick forest. The sound is clear, there is movement. He trains his ear to the sound and turns left. Crouched under a tree, his vision is aided by the moon leaving behind a faint trail of light. Then he sees a bush move. That’s it, he thinks and gets ready for the kill.
The boar, unaware of the hunter some distance away, happily gorges on the tubers. She hears something sudden, and immediately jumps in alertness. Trained to see in the dark, she spots the hunter running with his spear and immediately sprints for life.
The hunter follows in pursuit and together they run through thick bushes and hard ground. No clear shot for him to release the spear yet.
His family has been starving for the past few days, barely managing with roots and leaves. The hungry faces of his kids, wife and ailing mother, standing under the hut as he departed yesterday evening, flashes through his mind in a jiffy. The memory adds vigor to his pursuit. He breathes hard and runs faster.
In a moment, they arrive at a clearing, where the bushes recede and tall trees take over. But this is the best ground to kill the boar which was covered by bushes until now.
He adjusts his grip around the spear, pulls his arm back, ready to launch.
As he was about to release, a sharp pain surges upward from his left leg. He cries out loud, unable to bear, and falters in his step. An inch long thorn had adeptly lodged itself under the arch of his foot.
The boar runs away and the hunter falls on the ground, groaning in pain.
The thorn is inevitable, but response dictates the future of the hunter, his family, and the forest itself.
Let’s look at how five different minds handle this exact moment.
*****
The Fool
He looks at the thorn buried deep and rage fills him. He carefully and with tremendous effort plucks it out and applies some soil over the bleed.
He looks around for the boar, a potential two-week food for his family is gone. His rage grows and he picks his spear and smashes it to the ground several times as it breaks into multiple pieces.
In a moment, a few feet ahead, the boar crosses the clearing. The sun’s rays has begun to add light, and the shot is also clear. He looks down at his spear. It lays on the ground with its shaft broken to pieces.
*****
The Simpleton
He manages to pluck the thorn out, but rage engulfs him. He turns around to see where the thorn had come from and finds a beautiful flowering bush filled with thorns.
He picks a rock nearby and pounds the bush to shreds, screaming in anger. A few feet behind, the boar runs past him, returning to its herd.
Within minutes, the innocent bush with all its flowers turns into pulp consumed by the hunter’s rage.
He smiles in joy and returns, but little did he know they are scattered throughout the forest and he will encounter them again.
*****
The Destroyer
After relieving himself of the thorn, the hunter turns around to see the bush. His rage grows higher and higher, and he shouts aloud like a lion, reverberating anger.
He looks at the flowering plant and remembers it is scattered throughout the forest.
In rage filled determination, he starts a fire and takes it around the forest, burning any bush with thorns in his wake.
By the time his rage abated in the afternoon, an entire section of forest is engulfed in flames. A couple of miles away, the hut had also begun to burn and with it everything he built over the years.
When his eyes opened to reality, he senses the heat and notices the flames have surrounded him and closing in.
*****
The Defeatist
With disappointed eyes, he saw the boar run away. He then turned to his foot and removed the thorn slowly.
He sits at the spot for a few minutes with his head and shoulders stooping. His mind paused, and his mood turned sombre.
How do I feed my family, he pondered for a while, with his mind unwilling to churn out any answers.
After some time, he gets up and limps back to his family empty handed.
*****
The Wise
Sitting upright, he carefully removes the thorn from his foot. For a while, as his rage simmered, the hunter looked intensely at the thorn he held between his finger tips. Brushing the soil off his body, he stands up and checks where the thorn had come from.
He notices the beautiful flowers the bush carried and decides not to cut it down. He looks around and finds different species of plants bearing their own thorns and scattered on the ground.
He soon realizes he cannot over come thorns during a hunt and after sufficient observation, he decides to continue his hunt, but this time more carefully.
He plucks a few large leaves with medicinal properties and presses it against the bleeding under his foot.
In a few seconds, the boar returns to the corner of the clearing, continuing to munch on tubers.
The hunter quickly ties the leaves with a string around the foot and readies himself. He digs his feet into the ground, and instantly sprints ahead for a few meters and launches the spear at the boar.
With great speed, the spear tears through the air as it hurls at the boar. In a couple of seconds before the animal could react, it had firmly landed in its intestines. Blood spurting out.
The hunter quickly runs towards the animal to ensure it doesn’t escape. As he ran, the steps of his left foot felt soft and sprung more easily.
That day he not only succeeded in his hunt, but also succeeded in discovering a new way to keep his feet safe.
Enraged men have always been the catalysts for extreme change on this planet. Look at history, or the people around, the politicians, the leaders and influencers. What kind of men or women are they?
The results of our action and endeavor depend on our temperament and the way we respond to a given situation.
Remember, their choices though it may feel disconnected always impact us directly or indirectly. Wise men have led humanity from the shadows to light. They provided solutions, innovated, and stood tall when it mattered. Without them we would still be living in burnt forests and as malnourished tribes.
The results of our action and endeavor depend on our temperament and the way we respond to a given situation. If our choice is thoughtful, we learn and grow, otherwise we fail and degenerate.
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Originally published on medium.com on Apr 12, 2026
