Furious Rebukes

Aquatic monsters wash up along the coast thrown against the rugged shore by the tumultuous tide.  The boy clinches his grip on his grandfather’s hand, weary of the unlikely resurrection of a beast.

“Papa, how come all these sharks died?”  The weary old man looks up and down the beach; a vibrant smile breaks through the warmness of his almond skin.  He looks down at his grandson, thinking carefully of how to answer.

“Well my boy; they didn’t know how to survive.”  The boy loosens his grip to inch closer to the water improving his view of the shark graveyard ever so slightly, he stops for a moment to look down the beach and then up towards the rest of the path; his young mind suddenly is struck by a bolt of lightning.

“Grandpa!  There are no Great Black Sharks!  I wanted to see one, how come they never make it to the beach?”

“That’s a very good question, how about I tell you all about it; that is if you don’t mind hearing an old man’s stories.”  The old man spots an abandoned log several yards away and guides them over.  He picks up his grandson and gently sits him on the log, preparing to deliver the verbal history of the Great Black Shark.

“Oh Grandpa, please tell it.”  The boy flashes a broad front toothless smile then settles into his position on the log.

“Ok buddy, tell me what you know about the Great Black Shark.”  The boy was bursting with excitement as if he’d been waiting to answer the question all day.

“Oh, the Great Black Shark is always hungry so he’s always eating and he makes sure to feed his family.  Hmm, oh he’s really scary so people keep away.”  The old man smiled then sat down next to the boy.

“Well that is some of it but there is something very important to be understood about the Great Black Shark.  It is not so much a fear that people have for him, it is respect and while he can be scary he also inspires; his greatness is born of that balance.”

“But how did he get like that Grandpa, is that how he’s born?”  The old man was now bursting with excitement as if he had been waiting to answer that question all day.

“Oh no, not at all it’s not as simple as genetics.  You see the Great Black Shark wasn’t always big, powerful and able to eat whenever he wanted.  There was a time when he was small and uneducated in the ways of the sea; this caused him to have countless hungry nights.  In those nights through the formative pains of starvation and the way his family fed him while his body and spirit matured he would hone the discipline it took him to become great.”

“Wow, grandpa so that made him not starve?”

“In a way but what it showed the world was much more important and it’s a big reason why there are no Great Black Sharks washed up on the beach.  The suffering and struggle the Great Black Shark endured pushed him to survive and excel; without that motivation most sharks end up here my boy.  He’s been molded by struggle, he will never starve again.”