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Pig munched on the sweet fruit, crisp grains, and crunchy
vegetables that were his dinner as the oxen, Big Red and Little Red, were
unharnessed for the day. He watched the two with pity as they laboriously
chewed their tasteless straw and grass.
Pig shook his head as he thought about the miseries that the
oxen must endure every day. They must wake up at dawn and spend the entire day
exhausting themselves with back-breaking labor. When they get home, they eat
food that’s barely edible. They work and work and work, with no rest, and there
wasn’t a single pleasure to make up for it.
Pig’s life was the picture of blissful happiness. He woke up
when he wanted, and immediately dove into a delicious breakfast. After he’d
eaten, he might roll in mud or play with some of the other animals. He spent
hours daydreaming and finding shapes in the clouds. He ate when he was hungry,
slept when he was tired, and played when he wanted to play. His life was happy,
and he was happy with it.
One day, as he blissfully crunched on an apple, Pig
overheard Big Red and Little Red talking about him. He listened as Little Red
complained about the difference in their food and Pig’s food, and he heard Big
Red tell his brother about the wedding feast and Pig’s sacrifice.
Pig already knew that he was being fattened for the table.
He’d always known. He couldn’t understand why Big Red and Little Red found that
to be such a horror. All animals died, eventually. Death was the one certainty
of the universe, and nothing could escape it. The important thing wasn’t to
evade death, as nothing has that power. The point of life is to enjoy what you
have, while you have it, since there’s no guarantee for the future.
Pig couldn’t imagine living a life like the oxen. It was one
enduring misery after another. He wondered why anyone would bear that, much
less want to extend it. Pig decided that he would much rather have fewer good
years of life than many, many horrible ones. It isn’t the length of your life
that matters, its how much living you do on the journey.
Author's Note: In the story, The Ox Who Never Envied the Pig, two oxen spend all day working and carrying the farmer's load. In exchange, they are fed straw and grass. The pig that lives on the farm is fed rich, good food every day, because he is being fattened up as the main course for a wedding. One of the oxen tells the other that it isn't fair that the pig gets fed so much better when it's the oxen who do all the work. The other oxen says that they shouldn't be jealous, the pig is eating the food of death. In the end, the pig is slaughtered and the two oxen are happy with their crap food, because unlike the pig, they will have a long life. I wanted to tell the story from the pig's point of view. Perhaps the pig is equally happy with his own lot in life. He might look at the oxen, slaving away all day and living on dead grass, and think that he has the better end of the bargain. Yes, his life will be cut short, but he actually gets to enjoy the life that he has. Is it better to live 100 miserable years of nothing but toil and bad food, or 20 good years of enjoyment and pleasure? After all, death comes for all of us in the end, the when is irrelevant.
Bibliography: The Jatakas Tales of India by Ellen Babbitt. Web Source.
