The Parable of the Blind Men & The Elephant

Although I hadn’t planned to do so, I ended up sharing this parable last week during the first live session of The Waymaker Program and I wanted to share it with you as well.

This go-to ‘Scaling Within classic’ is one I often refer to when working with leadership teams or during a workshop on personality types, but I believe it offers an especially relevant and useful perspective to help remain above the pulls of pride, polarity and divisiveness that is ever-present in our current climate.

One of my favorite things about this parable is how well it illustrates that no one person carries a complete understanding of the whole picture themselves, but each person has a necessary piece. Your piece is not above anyone else’s, and it is also not less than anyone else’s either. We need ALL of the pieces on the table in order to understand the full picture.

May you have the courage to offer your unique perspective to the world and the humility to recognize that it is not the only one.

There were once six blind men who stood by the road-side every day, and begged from the people who passed. They had often heard of elephants, but they had never seen one; for, being blind, how could they?

It so happened one morning that an elephant was driven down the road where they stood. When they were told that the great beast was before them, they asked the driver to let him stop so that they might see him. Of course they could not see him with their eyes; but they thought that by touching him they could learn just what kind of animal he was.

The first one happened to put his hand on the elephant's side. "Well, well!" he said, "now I know all about this beast. He is exactly like a wall."

The second felt only of the elephant's tusk. "My brother," he said, "you are mistaken. He is not at all like a wall. He is round and smooth and sharp. He is more like a spear than anything else."

The third happened to take hold of the elephant's trunk. "Both of you are wrong," he said. "Anybody who knows anything can see that this elephant is like a snake."

The fourth reached out his arms, and grasped one of the elephant's legs. "Oh, how blind you are!" he said. "It is very plain to me that he is round and tall like a tree."

The fifth was a very tall man, and he chanced to take hold of the elephant's ear. "The blindest man ought to know that this beast is not like any of the things that you name," he said. "He is exactly like a huge fan."

The sixth was very blind indeed, and it was some time before he could find the elephant at all. At last he seized the animal's tail. "O foolish fellows!" he cried. "You surely have lost your senses. This elephant is not like a wall, or a spear, or a snake, or a tree; neither is he like a fan. But any man with a par-ti-cle of sense can see that he is exactly like a rope."

Then the elephant moved on, and the six blind men sat by the roadside all day, and quarreled about him. Each believed that he knew just how the animal looked; and each called the others hard names because they did not agree with him. People who have eyes sometimes act as foolishly.

*Source: https://americanliterature.com/author/james-baldwin/short-story/the-blind-men-and-the-elephant .