When Weak is Strong

"If you can meet success and failure and treat these imposters both the same, then you’ll be a man, my son." Rudyard Kipling

In the early 80's I was involved in counselling and working with discouraged young people. We had many irons in the fire and were constantly engaged in projects. One project in particular required a fund-raiser and I was selected to do the job.

I was sure things would go well, but weeks of writing letters, phoning and knocking on doors had barely paid for itself. One afternoon was particularly discouraging and I realized I needed a new vision so I walked to a nearby park to try and clear my head.

As I strolled along, I came upon a beautiful little lake. I could see some excitement was going on at one end so I wandered over. A small crowd had gathered laughing and pointing at something in the water. I squeezed through to see a dozen baby ducks in hot competition with each other over chunks of bread being tossed to them. Of special interest was the tiniest duckling, exceptionally cute with this fuzzy little grape-sized head. He was obviously the runt and being beat at every turn by the others.

We all did our best to help him out by chucking the bread as close to him as we could get it, but to no avail. Different strategies were suggested, but before the bread even hit the water the larger ducklings would snatch it up.

It was so touching to see "Pee-wee" stuck on the outside of that turbulent circle frantically searching for a break.

All of us were so caught up in this that you'd have thought it was the World Series!

Suddenly, one of the daddies landed a shot smack in front of Pee-wee! We all let out a united gasp and held our breath.

The "ball" was now clearly in his court and Pee-wee didn't miss it! He snatched that bread up and literally ran across the top of the water(!) with it before the others could steal it away!

It was hilarious to see his stubby little wings fluttering madly as he fled with his well deserved (bigger than his own head!) prize.

A cheer rose up from the crowd that sounded like Babe Ruth just hit a home run. It was that exciting.

Content at last, the crowd dispersed and I walked off encouraged and inspired.

The brave example of that tiny duck brought everything into perspective for me. I felt hopeful, invigorated. "If Pee-wee didn't give up, why should I?"

It's been many years since then, and thinking back on it, it occurred to me that maybe he wasn't the weakest one after all.

Jan Turner