The fox watched the centipede and wondered how it could walk on so many legs! L. She went up to S. And asked her about it: “Wait,” she asked, “I’m puzzled by you and I want to ask you how you manage all this, how do you decide which leg should be moved behind which?” Hundreds of legs! And you walk so smoothly. How do you achieve such harmony?”
“I’ve been walking all my life and never thought about it. Let me think about it.
And so she thought, closed her eyes and for the first time became two. She always lived and walked and her life was complete. She became subject and object, she became two, and then she tried to go. This turned out to be difficult and almost impossible. She fell to the ground because how can you handle a hundred legs?
Lisa laughed and said:
- I knew it was difficult, I knew it in advance!
And the centipede cried bitterly. And with tears in her eyes she exclaimed:
“This has never been difficult before, but you came up with a problem.” Please don't ask other centipedes this question. I've been walking my whole life and never had any problems, and now you've completely killed me. Now I will never be able to walk again.
I don't know what happened to this centipede. But stupid people who do this may end up in the hospital. And other centipedes are not so stupid. They will most likely put this question out of their heads and, presumably, say to the fox:
“Save your questions for yourself, and we’ll just walk around.”
The other centipede most likely realized that it was impossible to live divided.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru