Can You Really Blame a Lion?

         The mighty lion finally made it back to his cave after a long day that resulted in a successful hunt.  He and his family were well fed, and ready to enjoy the cool comfort of the shaded rock; watching the Sun set in a beautiful display of colors across the sky, changing as the Sun moved lower to the horizon.
         “What a fine meal we had today family, no?” asked the lion.  “Of course dear” replied his mate and mother of his cub.  “Yeah, it was really good dad!” said the enthusiastic young cub.
         The lion was pleased with himself, as any male should that provides for his family.  ‘Look at what we have’ thought the lion. ‘We have this wonderful cave, all of this land full of food, plenty of refreshing water to drink.  I think we are doing just fine for ourselves if I do say so myself.’
         Now, at this exact moment a strange hairless monkey-like creature, known as man, came wandering into this particular lion’s den.  ‘What a nice cave’ the man thought to himself.  ‘It is a great place to escape the blazing heat of the Sun, and a place to avoid all of these pesky creatures that roam free here.  I’m extremely lucky to have stumbled into such a wonderful cave.’  He, of course, had not noticed the family of lions that inhabited the cave that he stumbled into. 
         The lion sat there perplexed, trying to establish what he should do in this particular situation.  Well, look at the situation from his perspective.  A strange creature had barged, unannounced and uninvited, into his home, where he and his family were enjoying a very relaxing evening.  He has no way of knowing if this creature means his family harm, if this creature is coming to claim alpha male, if this creature has come to try to take his home, or even if this stupid animal has just stumbled into the wrong cave.  That is a long list of scenarios for a lion with a belly full of food to think about in such a short amount of time. 
         ‘I need to explore this cave’ the man thought.  As he turned around he noticed a very interesting variable that changed the severity of the experience he was observing and participating in.  He had, of course, by this point become painfully aware of the fact that there was a family of lions looking directly at him.  He thought ‘I should start to move very slowly towards the entrance of the cave.’  As he started to creep, foot over foot, towards the caves only way in and out, he looked at the lion’s and smiled to assure them that he meant no harm whatsoever while extending his arms out in the friendliest manner a person could have ever possibly done in any other possible scenario one can think of.
         When the lion saw this, he interpreted a very different situation taking place.  ‘This creature is slowly moving into an attack stance.  Look at how it’s extending its claws.  It’s moving towards the only way in or out of our cave!  Now it’s flashing its teeth at my family and me!’  At this point, the lion could do one thing, protect his family and home.  What else can a father and husband do when a hostile intruder enters his domicile?  ‘Well, I’ll give him one chance; a verbal warning to leave or else.’  The lion said to the creature “Get out of our home.”
         Now, since the man didn’t speak lion, mankind has never taken the time to learn how to speak the language of any other creature on the planet, he only heard “ROAR!”  This lead to slight misinterpretation of what was meant, and this in turn led to the man screaming in fear for his life that suddenly seemed more important than it ever had before.  He panicked and started flailing about like a wild beast suffering from some unpronounceable rare disease.  Then, for some reason, scientists say they have figured out, but they all always seem to argue about the exact reason it happens, he froze in place like one of those nice statues you find in a nice museum. 
         When the lion saw this and heard the scream from this creature, he came to the conclusion that this animal was going to attack.  Why else would it scream and throw its claws in the air, only to freeze in a battle stance?  When this had finished processing in the lions’ brain, he did what it is that lions do in this particular situation.  He ripped the creature to shreds.  As he was attacking the creature he said “you know I gave you the chance to leave, but no.  You had to stay here and put on such a fancy show, and flash your teeth in a violent manner.  I’m really a friendly lion; some might even call me a pacifist.”
         The man only heard the roar of the lion as it tore through his flesh with its razor-sharp claws.  ‘What a horrible way to die’ thought the man to himself.  ‘My mother never warned me about this when I was a child at the zoo.  I suppose there could be worse ways to die.  Unfortunately, I can’t happen to think of any of them since I’m being ripped apart by this ferocious lion.  I wonder if he finds me tasty.  Is that an odd thing to be thinking about when being torn to shreds by a lion?  I don’t know, I’ve never met someone who was being torn apart by a lion that I could ask.  Oh well.’
         “What a distasteful creature this wretched thing is” said the lion to his family.  “I’ve never tasted anything so appalling in all of my life.  I hope this beast isn’t poisonous.  Well, that takes care of that.  It looks about as dead as something can be.” 
         It’s very odd to realize that each and everything we encounter perceives a completely different situation when dealing with the same event.  No matter how close things seem to be the same that we agree on, they are usually nothing like what we all say we agree on when we think of that one thing.