A monkey’s puzzle

Once upon a time, a monkey sat puzzled at his existence. “Why, oh why, oh why is it so difficult to stop monkeying around?” The monkey thought to himself!

On the one hand, he very much enjoyed monkeying around (after all he was a monkey), but on the other hand, he did not like one second of having to sit in a cage, which he was sure must have been down to monkeying around.

All he knew of how to be, was to be a monkey, which concerned him. For if he was to be a monkey for the rest of his life. Which if his life up until present was anything to go by then he most certainly was. He would most certainly be put back in a cage in the future after he was released. This, on top of his nature of monkeying around and the fact that at present he was in a cage, was not very comforting. It seemed like the most likely insight to the monkey’s future, which was why he was so puzzled about his existence.

“To be a monkey, or not to be a monkey” The monkey asked himself. “If I am not going to be a monkey then what am I going to be?” So the monkey started to make a list of alternative existences he could live that would prevent him from seeing the inside of a cage ever, ever again.

The hippo was first to make the list, then the giraffe, then the lion, the buffalo, the zebra, the sloth, the gazelle and lastly, the elephant. Content with his list, he began to shorten the list until he was left with his best option.

The lion was the first to be crossed off. Although a lion’s power was undeniable, the lion was probably involved in a whole world of deeper trouble, plus the diet of a lion did not appeal to the monkey on second thoughts.

Then the giraffe went. Although he admired the giraffe’s view of the world (and that there surely could not be a cage high enough to get a giraffe in), he thought spending the rest of his life looking down on everyone would be as energy consuming as being put in a cage.

Third to go was the gazelle. The gazelle had some impressive dance moves, and dancing was one of the monkey’s favourite past times but the thought having to dance with the Lion made him not want to dance at all.

The buffalo was strong, fast and hard working, but only ate grass and only enjoyed life within its pack no self-respecting monkey could ever only eat grass nor give up its sense of self and freedom.

The zebra was removed because the monkey had not really thought about the benefits of being a zebra and had just put them on the list because the monkey liked the zebra’s prints.

The Monkey admired the sloth for its love of trees. But the monkey knew realistically that he could never live life at such a slow pace.

The hippo, huge and powerful with teeth the size of the entire monkey, was sure to keep free from the cage, but the hippo wasn’t the most sociable of characters and there was nothing the Monkey loved more then cracking bananas with friends.

Which left the elephant. A peace-lover, whose trunk could pick the finest of meals from the jungle, with strength and tusks that were a formidable sight to anyone trying to cage the elephant and (needless to mention) the benefits of the elephant’s memory.

And so the monkey set about becoming an elephant. He thought to himself, “One must first think like an elephant, if one is to become the elephant.” Which given his current situation and realisation of being a monkey in a cage, left the monkey even more puzzled at his existences.