Sometimes in life, we get the bad rap.
For whatever reason, someone may not hold us in very high regard. It could result from a lot of things. Maybe they misunderstood something we once said. Or perhaps, their opinion of us is based on lies or misinformation.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “You can’t please all the people all the time.” Along those same lines? We can’t like everyone. And everyone can’t like us. Not hardly, I don’t think.
But back to the bad rap. It could happen to anyone, anywhere.
Perhaps one character on this planet who has long gotten the bum deal is the lemming. That’s right.
The lemming.
And I am here to set the record straight, as I am guilty of using “verbal imagery” against these poor little creatures.
Lemmings do not follow each other, mindlessly jumping off cliffs and committing mass suicide.
No. They do not.
In fact, they are smart little creatures. Planners. Preparers. Doers. They can also be quite cranky, even irascible. Maybe because of all the lies.
So, we all may be wondering, how did this whole thing about lemmings jumping off cliffs get started?
It all began back in the 17th century. In Norway, naturalists would be perplexed by the sudden appearance of large numbers of lemmings. Science, back then, wasn’t what it is today. Those naturalists thought the animals were spontaneously generated in the sky. They would then fall to earth like rain. The absolute truth happened to be that lemmings migrate in herds.
And then came the suicide thing. This myth is actually based on some true lemming behaviors. Those little furry creatures have large population booms every three or four years. Apparently, they like to “get busy” in cycles, if you know what I mean.
Anyway, when a whole bunch of lemmings starts overpopulating one area (and weakening their lemming resources like food and shelter), a large group will set out in search of a new home. Now. Among other things, lemmings are good little swimmers. So when a huge band of them migrate to a new area and reach a water obstacle? Something like a river or lake? They decide to swim across. And in they all go, diving and swimming. Most of them reach the other side just fine, but occasionally a few perish during the journey. Hardly a mass suicide. But someone started that rumor.
These days, it gives us an irresistible metaphor for human behavior. It aptly describes someone who blindly follows a crowd. And it could be those people are heading straight for a catastrophe.
So, the lemming continues to get the bad rap.
I could tell you a lot more about what neat little creatures they are, how they burrow and find food and such. They have little tempers on them too. You might see a couple of little lemmings squaring off for a little lemming boxing match.
They don’t live very long, either. Only about two years on average. So there’s that.
But. They don’t commit mass suicide.
My point about these furry creatures is this.
If people really want to find out the truth about something, most of the time, that absolute truth can be discovered.
Yet, so often, especially now in politics, it is much easier to accept the “story” that comes out of someone’s mouth, especially if it lines up with our values, motives, and agenda.
But if anything to the contrary is said, those words are immediately deemed “lies.”
It takes a little time, intelligence, and searching to find out what is true and what is not. And the most significant part of this is being neutral in our research. Yet it rarely happens in our current society.
So there we have the lemming. Once again. Diving over the cliff.
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Consider your origins: you were not made to live as brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge.
— Dante Alighieri
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When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.
— Eric Cantona
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In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
— Unknown
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Mass suicide? Not with them.
