The Lion's Squeal

  The Lion’s Squeal

There once was a lion named Caleb and ever since he was young, he admired his father for his tremendous roar.  In his lion tribe, having a powerful voice was a symbol of strength and confidence. Every three years, a roar competition would be held and the winner would be showered with praise and looked upon with respect.  Caleb wanted to follow his father’s footsteps of being the winner of the competition since the day he turned one years old. However, there was one problem. He unfortunately was born with the voice that resembled that of a mouse and no matter how much he tried, he could only squeal loudly.

His classmates would ridicule him for his pitiful voice and his father would look at him with sad eyes from time to time. One day, a stampede of elephants, the lions’ rivals, launched a surprise assault and started to rush towards the lions’ settlement.  The unprepared lions were dumbfounded and roared at them but with no avail. Suddenly gaining courage, Caleb mustered as much air as he could into his lungs and tried to roar. The elephants, thinking they had heard a large mouse, became frightened and retreated. The other lions all thanked Caleb and held a celebration. He no longer felt that his voice was a curse.

Moral: There are advantages to being different