Fables for Dispute Resolution
We all remember some of Aesop’s fables from our childhood and some of them are part of our cultural DNA (the tortoise and the hare, for example). A blogger on dispute resolution recently used Aesop’s fable about the scorpion and the frog to illustrate a point about how some lawyers cannot adapt to collaborative approaches. I wondered what other Aesop’s fables might illustrate principles of dispute resolution, so I dipped into a collection of fables and found a few – some you may have heard of, others are more obscure.
This is the first in an occasional series of dispute resolution fables from Aesop. This first selection is of fables about perspective – how we perceive others when in conflict and the importance of looking at disputes from the other’s perspective.
THE TWO BAGS
Every man carries Two Bags about with him, one in front and one behind, and both are packed full of faults. The Bag in front contains his neighbours’ faults, the one behind his own. Hence it is that men do not see their own faults, but never fail to see those of others.
THE MAN AND THE LION
A Man and a Lion were companions on a journey, and in the course of conversation they began to boast about their prowess, and each claimed to be superior to the other in strength and courage. They were still arguing with some heat when they came to a cross-road where there was a statue of a Man strangling a Lion. “There!” said the Man triumphantly, “look at that! Doesn’t that prove to you that we are stronger than you?” “Not so fast, my friend,” said the Lion: “that is only your view of the case. If we Lions could make statues, you may be sure that in most of them you would see the Man underneath.”
There are two sides to every question.