There once was a
man who was so disturbed by the sight of his own shadow and so uneasy with the
sound of his own footsteps that he determined to get rid of them both at the
same time. He decided that the best way to accomplish this task was to run away
from them. So at one moment, he got up and he ran. The problem was though that
every time he set his foot down there was the sound of another step, and while
he ran quickly, his shadow had no problem keeping up with him. He determined
his lack of success was because he simply wasn’t running fast enough. So after
pondering his problem, he decided to run as fast as he could as long as he
could; and he did so without stopping, until he finally collapsed and died. The
poor man failed to realize that if he had merely stepped into the shade, his
shadow would of vanished, and if he sat down and stayed still, there wouldn’t have
been any more footsteps.
– Chuang Tzu
