The Parable of Two Caterpillars

Loof and Epoh had just emerged from their eggs and had began what they considered to be the business of life, eating and more eating.

Loof was an active being; he was here to enjoy life.  Always on the move, always looking for the best food available.  He would push others out of the way to get what he wanted. He was restless, wanting more and more.  Epoh, on the other hand was more thoughtful; he pondered whether there could not be more to life than this.  However, as he thought he kept on munching away at anything that was locally available.

Loof could not understand Epoh’s approach to life.  Why did he think so much, why not just enjoy life as you know it and get the most out of life?

“Why aren’t you doing more to get the best food.  You will be admired much more by other caterpillars as you will become bigger and stronger than them.”

Epoh replied

“But isn’t there more to life than just getting bigger and fatter? I just have a instinct that there is more than just the here and now that we can see.” .

To this Loof answered,

“What more can there be? We live on this leaf and we eat and then we die?”

Loof was too busy eating to think.  He kept munching away at the best he could find and became bigger and bigger.  In contrast Epoh contently pressed on thinking about what life was really for.

One day, tragedy struck that little community of caterpillars.  A large blackbird appeared from nowhere, looking for its lunch.  It immediately sighted the large form of Loof and in a second Loof was devoured.

Epoh however steadily grew to full size and then became slower and slower.  His skin became firmer.  He thought this was the end.  He fell asleep.

But this was not the end.  He woke up into a new world.  He was now completely different - he had wings and a new form of beauty he had never imagined.  He was free, free to explore a world with much wider dimensions.

What a fool Loof had been to focus his eyes only on what he could see and to become a glutton for the visible.  How much wiser Epoh had been to live contently in the Hope of a bigger and better world.  He had been transformed.