Articles
The Parable of the Hungry Skink
Once upon a time there was a hungry skink looking for a juicy bug to eat. He slipped his fat, slick body under the garage door and began prowling for a meal. In time he came across a curious box that was open on either end. Peering inside, what did he see but dozens of flies, beetles and ants – a veritable smorgasbord of insects!
The skink rushed into the box ready to dine but soon realized that he couldn’t move. He was stuck fast in some kind of goo. The more he struggled, the more it cemented its hold on him. All he could do was wait to die, taunted by those scrumptious bugs just beyond his nose that had enticed him into the exterminator’s trap and had suffered the same fate that awaited him.
But to the skink’s good fortune, the homeowner eventually happened by and noticed the box with a tail sticking out the end. On first glance he thought the skink was dead, but closer inspection revealed that he was breathing. The homeowner put on gloves, got a pair of scissors and cut the box open. The glue was so strong that freeing the frightened little skink seemed a hopeless endeavor. But the homeowner persisted, and bit by bit the critter became unstuck.
As his savior had all but freed him, the skink was furiously flailing and biting the gloved finger of the homeowner. Finally hitting the ground, the little lizard slithered under the front stoop, relieved to finally escape from both his cardboard coffin and the scary giant who had set him free. Moral: People are a lot like hungry, foolish and ungrateful skinks.
