Frogs and dogs

Some of you may have now realised I do, on a regular basis, steal an idea from my "long lost little sister" yourstruly100. Some of you probably feel a plug coming up. First, I will say that this is a two way street, I steal her ideas and she steals mine. If you like the blog I wrote about what my Christmas presents said about me, check out her blog about what her birthday presents say about her here.


I think that's all the plug she needs. The fact I steal her ideas shows that I like the concepts of her blogs, the fact that she steals mine shows that she is intelligent.


Lately I've felt like I needed to say something. Anything. I needed to express myself and get a blog down, but I couldn't find any words. Then I read her post here about the frog in the well.


It started with a comment on her blog. But, then I thought, I love that comment so much, I would love to expand it into a blog. First, I'll share the story for those who don't know it.


There was a frog that lived in a shallow well.


" Look how well off I am here ! " he told a big turtle from the Eastern Ocean. " I can hop along the coping of the well when I go out, and rest by a crevice in the bricks on my return. I can wallow to my heart's content with only my head above water, or stroll ankle deep through soft mud. No crabs or tadpoles can compare with me. I am master of the water and lord of this shallow well, What more can a fellow ask ? Why don't you come here more often to have a good time ? "


Before the turtle from the Eastern Ocean could get his left foot into the well, however, he caught his right claw on something. So he halted and stepped back then began to describe the ocean to the frog.


"It's more than a thousand miles across and more than ten thousand feet deep. In ancient times there were floods nine years out of ten yet the water in the ocean never increased.


And later there were droughts seven years out of eight yet the water in the ocean never grew less. It has remained quite constant throughout the ages. That is why I like to live in the Eastern Ocean. "


Then the frog in the shallow well was silent and felt a little abashed.


She admitted, like I do, that we are the frog.


I know that my flat is my well. I know there is an ocean out there. Personally though, I am not really interested.


Because, my pets, I am a transformer. At this point in my blog I make the transition from frog, to dog, and I share with you a quote from a Metallica song, "Low Man's Lyric"


"So you bring this poor dog in from the rain, but he just wants right back out again.."


People look at me in my rainy well and feel sorry for me. "This poor frog dog, how can it be happy in circumstances that I might find uncomfortable? No, what it needs is a life exactly like mine"


So they invite me to their warm ocean where there are lots of other creatures, and, on occassions, I have even visited this ocean.


But in all its vastness, for all its creatures, the ocean just felt.. empty. The ocean holds nothing of interest for me. The experiences always leave me longing for my well.


The tortoises will never understand.