Week 2 Story The Loud Turtle

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There was once a pond in a large field. It was a beautiful, clear pond connected upstream to a smaller pond and downstream to an even smaller pond. A stream once flowed through each pool allowing the ecosystems of each respective body of water to balance and flourish. Reeds grew thick on the banks of the pond and the flowers of the lily pads rustled in the cooling breezes sweeping across the water’s surface. It was a wonderful home to the turtles floating peacefully in the water.

Over time, a turtle living in the beautiful pond began to become concerned that the ecosystems in the water upstream and downstream were flourishing at the expense of his beautiful pool. Although the pond did not belong to this turtle, he spoke loudly and often of the injustice of nature to cause each pond’s health to be dependent on each other. 

“The pond upstream is sending us its waste, bigtime,” exclaimed the loud turtle! “The pond downstream is stealing our nutrients! We must make our pond beautiful again!”

A group of other turtles in the still beautiful pond took note of the loud turtle’s concerns and began to fear a possible injustice as well. All the rest of the turtles, whose total number exceeded the loud turtle and his following, dove underwater to seek peace and solitude from the loud turtle’s proclamations. To the dismay of the retreating turtles, the loud turtle’s fear mongering could still be heard through the water to below. The constant drawl came in seemingly mispronounced broken phrases and confused the turtles seeking peace and solitude. To drown out the loud declarations, the turtles seeking peace and solitude dug into the mud at the bottom of the pond and stayed to wait out the noise.

Since only turtles who followed the loud turtle’s fearful concerns remained on the surface, the loud turtle began to consider himself the king of the pond. Since none of the turtles on the surface disputed his claim, it became so. Continuing to talk loudly, he urged the other turtles to build a berm around the pond to block the flow of water through each pool. Sharing the loud turtle’s fearful sentiments, his following began to dive to the bottom of the pond to carry mouthfuls of mud to the banks to build the berm. 

As each mouthful took mud from the bottom of the pond up to the surrounding banks, the turtles seeking peace and solitude began to lose their deep cover. After realizing that digging further into the mud at the bottom of the pond was no longer dulling the sound of the loud turtle, the turtles seeking peace and solitude began to rise to the surface. As they swam upward, the once beautiful, clear water remained murky and soiled. The only sense guiding them up through the dark was the growing sound of the loud turtle talking. Once they surfaced, their pond was no longer the beautiful, balanced pool it had once been. The banks where built high upon a floor of crashed reeds. The lily pads had become heavy with sediment and sunk below. 

“What has become of our beautiful, clear pond? The lily pads have died, and the reeds have been crushed,” cried the turtles seeking peace and solitude.

Sitting at the shore of the pond within the sun dried berm surrounding the pools edge was the loud turtle. He looked around at the condition of the once beautiful, clear pond and he saw that it had become a dark barren puddle. 

The loud turtle proclaimed, “See! The pond upstream has filled our pool with waste! The pond downstream from ours has stolen our nutrients! Look at our pond. It was once beautiful and now it is ruined! We MUST MAKE OUR POND BEAUTIFUL AGAIN!”

Driven by fear, the loud turtle’s following no longer heard what he said. They only heard a sound that reminded them to keep building a berm. 

Unable to speak over the loud turtle’s voice, the turtles seeking peace and solitude could not convince the other turtles that their actions where the cause of the pond’s destruction. Inside the berm line the pond began to dry. The mud walls baked hard in the sun and the turtles could no longer seek refuge from the heat above. 

Outside the berm line, the stream that once flowed through the three ponds had found a path around the hardened berm. Nourishing water flowed from the small pond upstream directly to the smaller pond downstream and, as a result, the two ponds grew.


Author's Note: Taking inspiration from the title character in The Jataka Tales: IV, The Turtle Who Couldn't Stop Talking, The Loud Turtle is about a contemporary figure who finds his demise through the cause and effect of his continuous, loud talking. A key difference is that in this new story, the talking isn't a sudden impulsive act that delivers the moral of the story to reader. Instead, the consequential act is in the consistent content of what the character is saying and the two different responses that it receives from the other characters. The demise of the turtle is a slow consistent act with opportunity from redemption that goes unrecognized by all.

Bibliography:

Ellen C. Babbitt, Jataka Tales: IV, The Turtle Who Couldn't Stop Talking, http://sacred-texts.com/bud/jt/jt06.htm