Monkey, Sloth, Bull and the Temple of Love

In the oldest of times the animals were the gods. They were all beautiful and sleek and swift, and the swiftest of all was Jaguar – king of the animal gods. He was a proud king and all creatures struggled to gain his favour. Every animal found their place in his hierarchy according to their speed.

And so, at the very bottom, was Sloth.

No one paid any attention to Sloth, so lowly was he, and Sloth really had nothing to do with godly matters. He ate and slept and, on rare moments - for it was a very long, slow process - Sloth made love.

Sloth woke very early one morning (if you can say that he ever awoke at all, for his life seemed a kind of long, slow dream). The wind had brought from the farthest edge of the forest, the delicious scent of a She Sloth. Sloth was struck instantly with a powerful will to move, and he did.

For one hundred years he moved from his end of the forest to be by the side of his Love. For one hundred years without stopping, but of course never moving too fast, he walked. As he went along his slow way, his eyes glowed with such a fire, such a determination, that the other animals began taking notice of Sloth. Soon news of Sloth’s Great Journey got back to the Jaguar King. Without wanting to seem too interested, the Proud King sent one of his Lieutenants - Monkey - to investigate.

Now Monkey was more curious than he was proud. He did not look down upon Sloth who was simply born slow. And when he found Sloth, what most impressed Monkey was Sloth’s great determination. Monkey tried to ask Sloth about his Great Journey, but either Monkey’s fast words were incomprehensible to Sloth, or Sloth was simply too absorbed in action to respond. Monkey finally decided that the only way he was going to be able to understand Sloth was to become like Sloth.

At first Monkey had great difficulty keeping Sloth’s slow pace. He would race ahead and race back, rest awhile and then catch up. Monkey was truly amazed at how difficult it was to move so slowly, assuming - as all swift things do - that to move fast was much more difficult. But as he began learning to move at Sloth pace, Monkey found out otherwise. His arms and legs ached every night as he collapsed and slept soundly before jumping up, running to catch up to Sloth and then following his slow, steady movements.

But as the years passed and Monkey began to slow himself down - especially his quick, clever thoughts - he began to be able to stay awake as Sloth did in his dreamy world. More importantly, Monkey began to see things as Sloth saw them - in much greater detail, in much sharper light. He examined every tiny insect, every leaf and passing cloud along his long, slow journey.

Day after day Monkey’s awareness gradually melded with his companion until on one morning, with a gust of magic wind, Monkey caught the subtle fragrance of the She Sloth. When he did, something overcame Monkey and drove him mad. He wished only to steal the She Sloth for himself. Remembering again his swift ways, he rushed ahead to woo her without a thought for his long-time companion, for love is utterly blind and ruthless and Monkey had become entirely consumed.

At full speed Monkey reached the She Sloth in a couple of days. She clung to the oldest, tallest tree in the forest. So large was the tree that a whole kingdom of animals and insects lived within it. The She Sloth was their Queen, awaiting patiently the arrival of her King.

Monkey rushed up to the She Sloth to sweep her off her feet, but when he approached her, she completely ignored him. Monkey danced and pranced and swung through the tree, doing every trick he could imagine to get her attention, but she was unimpressed. His movements grew more and more frantic. Overcome by a wild frenzy, a revelation suddenly struck him. Monkey realised that the Queen was a Sloth, and if she moved so slowly maybe she could only see slowly too. He tried to move at Sloth pace again, but he found that he had entirely forgotten how. He would have to go back and learn from Sloth again.

So off he went, running through the forest until he found Sloth with exactly the same determined expression, moving at exactly the same pace. Monkey was thinking about nothing now but the beautiful Sloth Queen. He wanted to get back to her as fast as he could. He was in a great hurry to learn how to be slow again. He watched Sloth’s arms. He watched Sloth’s legs. He tried to imitate him, but with every attempt he quickly lost patience. He finally gave up in frustration and decided he would have to run back just to look upon the dazzling image of the Sloth Queen again. But when he got back all he could think about was being slow again so he could woo her. So back he went to learn from Sloth again, and again thoughts of the Queen carried him back to look on her. Back and forth and back and forth Monkey went for days or week or months - he no longer knew, for his mind was completely corrupted by love, and his will was no longer his own. Haggard, staggering, on his way back from one of his trips to see the Queen, he strayed from his usual path and come out into an open field where he encountered his friend Bull. In complete despair, Monkey fell on his haunches and watched his friend pulling on his cart as he did every day - pulling the huge pile of high from the field to the barn. One load at a time, Bull moved the hay with a slow muscular assurance that grabbed Monkey’s attention. Before he knew it, he found his mind lulled softly into the simple rhythm as he watched the strong muscles of Bull pull the loaded cart back and forth, back and forth. In one glorious moment Monkey found that his mind actually stopped its incessant chatter as he watched the simple rhythmic movement of Bull pulling his cart with constant, sturdy certainty.

Monkey ran up to Bull and stopped him in his work. “My friend,” he called out excitedly,” can you possibly help me?”

“Sure,” said Bull, turning from his concentration. “What do you need me to do?”

“I have been trying to still my furious running mind,” Monkey blurted out in exasperation. “Watching you, I realised that your mind is always still as you move in the steady rhythm, pulling your cart. Can I pull your cart today?”

Bull laughed loudly. “Oh Monkey. One step at a time, my friend…One step at a time…” With that Bull carried on his job of pulling the cart. Monkey dragged himself away, now in utter misery and gloom.

That night, Monkey tossed and turned, even more assailed by his unrelenting mind than he was before. Exhausted, Monkey eventually fell into a deep sleep and began to dream.

He dreamed that he was once more with his friend Sloth. Sloth stopped for a moment in his long walk (it took Sloth a very long time to stop). He spoke to Monkey (It took him an even longer time to speak). “Monkey,” Sloth said over the course of what seemed like three days. “Do you think that I want to be slow?”

“Yes,” Monkey quickly replied.

“No. If I could, I would run to my love right now and embrace her. But I am a sloth, and I must move at sloth speed.”

After seemingly three months of listening, Monkey asked, “I admire your great determination, Sloth. How can I be like you?”

“If you want to be like me,” Sloth said, then paused for a week, “be yourself.”

Monkey awoke feeling entirely liberated. He sat and thought for a very long time (a long time for Monkey that is). He contemplated the lesson of the Bull, the lesson from his dream and he came up with a plan. He could not go slow like Sloth, but he would keep practicing. For to be like himself Monkey would always be working to improve himself – that was just his way. But he also could not resist gazing upon the Queen. So back and forth he would go every day, and along his way he would find a beautiful stone for every journey. To demonstrate his devotion, Monkey would place the stones around the tree where the Sloth Queen perched.

Through the years, as Sloth made his slow way closer and closer and closer to his Beloved, Monkey piled up more and more stones. When Sloth finally arrived at his goal, he found a pile nearly halfway up the magnificent tree which was the home of his Love.

For seven weeks the two sloths gazed into each other’s eyes. The Queen beckoned Sloth with every slow step. Sloth moved with an even fiercer determination now that he was within sight of his True Love. All the while Monkey piled the stones faster and faster until by the time Sloth reached his goal and touched for the first time the silken coat of his beloved, Monkey had built a temple up to the delicate foot of the Queen.

The two sloths came together so slowly, so sweetly that the whole forest was moved to watch. Two by two the animals came forward and received the blessings of the Sloths as they made love for one hundred years, seemingly motionless in their gentle union.

As for Monkey, he was nowhere to be seen, for as he had placed the last stone on the Great Temple, another hand reached out and touched his. A She Monkey had been watching him from the trees. She was amused by him at first, but later her interest grew as she recognised his great devotion to Love. And as she led him into the forest, Monkey looked back at the temple and the sky and the Tree and the Sloths, and he saw that they were good.

He was no longer a god, nor even an animal, but just himself – Monkey.