The Tiger, the Strawberry, and the Fruit Magnate

copyright © 2010 by Robert L. Blau

You are probably familiar with the Zen/Taoist story, "The Tiger and the Strawberry." In the story, a man is hanging on a vine on the side of a precipice. Above him is a hungry tiger. Below him is another hungry tiger. Just out of reach are two mice that are chewing their way through the vine. Any way you look at it ... he's screwed. At the crucial moment, he spots a ripe strawberry growing on the side of the mountain. He plucks the strawberry, rams it in his mouth, and has a yum moment. It's a live-in-the-moment story. Sure, the guy is about to become the cream filling in a tiger sandwich, but hey, what a deeee-licious strawberry! That sort of thing is very popular among the Zaoists. So this story takes up where that one left off ...

As he scarfed down the strawberry, the man made a remarkable discovery. It turned out that the source of the strawberry was a robust little bush, and that bush was but one of a series of sturdy bushes, leading to a plateau. And the plateau was inaccessible to the tigers, both upper and lower. If the man just reached out and grabbed the first strawberry bush, he could swing, hand over hand, bush to bush, to safety. So he stretched forth his arm ...

"You stop right there, Bubba!"

The man was not alone on the vine. Another figure was rappelling swiftly in his direction.

"Those are my strawberries, fella!" shouted the new arrival. "Hands off!"

"But that's a way to safety, don't you see?" explained our hero. "All I have to do is propel myself along the bushes!"

"Not on my bushes," snapped the other guy. "I am the owner of every strawberry and strawberry bush in Japan or China or wherever this damn story is located! I am a fruit magnate. Those bushes are part of my fortune!"

"I don't think you understand," said the man. "The strawberry bushes are the only way out of this mess. Have you noticed the drooling tigers above and below?"

"Yes," said the fruit magnate.

"Ah, but did you notice the mice that are chewing up the vine?"

"Absolutely," said the fruit magnate.

"Then you know that the vine is about to snap and dump its contents into that tiger's maw?"

"Yes," said the fruit magnate.

"But have you figured out that you will die, too?"

"Certainly," said the fruit magnate.

"Then why," sobbed the man, "why won't you join me in saving both our lives?"

"What you just learned a moment ago," said the fruit magnate, "was to live in the moment, giving never a thought to the future. What I learned was to wallow in my profits, giving never a shit about anything else."