Sitting with his back to the great oak, sun upon his face and the river swift and wide before him, Yon tried to empty his mind. It was no use; his father’s words kept intruding upon his meditation.

“You are almost of an age when people will make up their minds  about you. They will decide if you have what it takes to succeed me as head man of the village. “ Yon had tried to interject to stop the lecture.

“I know, I know, you’ll say that that won’t happen for years, but people form impressions about such things early. You have to demonstrate your commitment of service to our village.”

Again he tried to raise objection, but his father just smiled, shook his head and said,  “Go to the river and meditate upon it.”

Their village was a small one, founded by his father, Gom, at this spot after the tribe had wandered for some time. Here the fishing in the river was so good that villagers could trade their abundant catch at the crossroads market. There was game and mushrooms, roots and herbs in the forest and the river flood plain was rich so they could grow crops and fibers.

People of the village respected Gom and had elected him head man. His wife, Ka was the village healer, a skill learned from Grandmother Wi herself. Yon worried that he would not be worthy when time came to choose a new head man.

“I must meditate,” he mumbled. Yon listened deeply to the flowing water, pulled the sound of the river to the side in his mind, and  began to chant “Awwh whehn, Awwh whenhn. Awwh. . . “

He was yanked from the beginning trance by a sharp cry. He looked up river and saw a woman flailing in the river, barely keeping her head aloft. She was in trouble.

Yon quickly shed his shoes and the loose parts of his clothing and dove into the water. He was young and a strong swimmer and reached the woman. He placed his arms around her back and ribcage and swam one-armed back to the shore.

The woman was shaken, but grateful to be saved. Yon put his tunic around her and helped her to her feet. Her right foot turned inward and she walked with a limp and Yon was worried he had injured her in the rescue.

“No, no – from birth,” she panted and they walked back to the village. People gathered round the woman, gave her warm clothing,  and fed her broth. In a few days when they asked if they could bring her home, she asked to stay. Gom welcomed her into the village.

Several suns later Yon and his friend Tik were playing feather- ball by the old oak. They heard cries and saw two people in trouble in the water. “I’ll go swim out with the rope said, Yon”

After he rescued the young woman Yon had tied a long fiber rope to the oak. Tik had made fun of him.

“You think you’ll get to be the hero twice,” laughed Tik.

“You never know” said Yon. Now he swam out and secured the rope around an old man and carry-swam and old woman back to shore, while Tik pulled the man in.

After some first aid and recuperation the old couple stayed and the woman joined the Grandmother Council.

And so it went. In the coming moons, Yon and others pulled someone from the river, sometimes three times per moon. Rescues happened so often that Yon built a lookout platform up river, with a bell to alert the village. They built a drying shed stocked with blankets.

Yon even swam to the other side of the river and hooked up a pulley system with a ferry raft. He later shaped the raft to cut through the water and greased the pulleys with animal fat to make them move more quickly.

Time passed. The village grew as many of the rescued chose to stay. Those rescued from the river were “an odd lot, “ people observed. There was the dwarf who became a jewelry maker, the boy with skin and eyes like snow. He called himself “Ghost,” but was the most amazing woodsmith, who made bowls, spoons and furniture even Yon’s pulleys for the rescue raft. Many of the rescued had afflictions or an oddity about them, but the village welcomed them all.

The villagers called their community, our tapestry. To the surrounding villages and travelers alike, the place was known as River Rescue. That made everyone proud.

Then one sun many summers later, Yon, who was now head man of the village said. “Mar was our 99^th rescue,” referring to the woman with the withered hand, who was teaching the gathering of ramps to the other women.

“We should celebrate the next as it will number 100.” And so the village prepared and many other locals heard and began finding reasons to visit the village. Some travelers began to “pass by” as well.

Then one morning the signal bell rang. The whole village and many passers-by came running. One of the young men made the trip to center river in the “streamlined” pulley-boat. It was an old man who looked near ninety summers, who the young man pulled from the river.

“Don’t be so rough!” Everyone heard the old man complain.

“Oh don’t let our celebration be spoiled by this cantankerous old man,” thought Yon.

“I can dry myself, thank you ,.” said the oldster as hobbled forward.

Yon stepped forward to save the celebration.

“Welcome to River Rescue, grandfather. We have designed a system to save your life, the way we have saved so many others. There is the signal bell and the rope and pulley-boats to pull you from the water. There is our healer who checked you for any injury. There is the drying shed and the warmed broth you were served. What think you of the Saving System of River Rescue?”

“. . . Impressive,” sneered the old man.

Yon was taken aback, but it was an important day so he redoubled his diplomacy. “Ah, grandfather, you have observe some system defect. Do tell us for we are always improving.”

The old man grumbled and there was a long uncomfortable pause and all the lookers-on refrained from breathing.

The old man sighed. “Look son. I do not wish to appear ungrateful. You, this town and all its people have saved what is left of my life, which I anticipate will be longer now than I imagined an hour ago. So, for that, I thank you.”

Again a pause and eventually, Yon  could no more be silent. “And yet. . . ?”

“Again I thank you,: said the old man , you saved me and others with a well thought out and self-improving life-saving system. . . “

“But. . . ?”

“But if you really want to solve the problem. . . you’d stop those bullies up-river from throwing people in.”

I first heard an abbreviated version of this story from a continuous improvement (CI) trainer, who used more colorful language to describe the bullies, which caused the group to laugh. He told it to emphasize the concept of getting to the root cause.

We often deign elaborate systems to alleviate a symptom of a problem and miss the real cause. There are simple and complex tools to alleviate this error. Asking “why?” – five times is the simplest. There are also fault maps, cause and effect diagrams and decision trees.

There are also lessons in this story about how we define ourselves. The River Rescue village defined itself as rescuers. That all began when Yon felt pressure to follow in his father’s footsteps as head man of the village. Soon Yon and the entire could not see anything other than improving the existing rescue system. What was causing the need for rescue was beyond their field of vision.

There are lessons of leadership in Gom’s lecture to his son and Yon’s reaction to it. Expectations are powerful.

I also heard this story told in a Diversity and Inclusion workshop, where the lesson was on welcoming those who are different from us.

And how and when to help. The workshop leader quoted American psychologist Carl Rogers:

“Your intention is not what defines help. Help is defined by the recipient” and the only way to know what is good help is to ask.

And people have the right to refuse help. Carl Rogers also said, “Help that is not asked for is usually perceived as interference and not help.”

I have been told that this story is from the Naqshbandi, a Sufi teaching order founded in the twelfth century. I have never been able to verify that.

Of the many lessons from this fable what resonates with you?

Your comments are welcome. Please scroll down to comment.

If you like my writing, please subscribe. Click the button below to receive 1-2 new posts per week via email. No ads, no affiliate links and I will never sell, trade or otherwise distribute your information. You can unsubscibe at any time, by clicking unsubscribe on any email.