Years ago I heard a story about spider monkeys that I've never forgotten.
The spider monkey lives in the trees of the tropical jungles of South America, have hook-like, narrow and thumbless hands and tiny brains.
The story I heard went something like this:
In order to catch spider monkeys, hunters in South America simply walk through the jungle and drop heavy containers on the ground. These containers have very a narrow top and a wider bottom. Inside the containers the hunters drop a special kind of nut which is particularly attractive to the monkeys. Sometime later, the spider monkeys come down from the tops of the trees, smell the nut, but the tops of the containers are so narrow they have a tight squeeze to get their hands inside. Once they grab the nut at the bottom, their fist is too large to remove if through the opening. And the containter is too heavy for them to carry.
So instead of letting go of the nut, the monkeys just sit there until the hunters come back, pick them up, and throw them in a bag.
The spider monkeys are not prepared to let go of a small nut in order to gain their freedom.
I don't know if the story is true, but you get the analogy.
This morning I'm lying in my hotel room asking myself - what ideas,
concepts or attachments do I need to be willing to give up in order to
allow myself to grasp a bigger and better concept? What do I have to be
willing to let go? I like to think of myself as a pretty logical
person, devoid of superstition, and dismissive of mythology. But I know
that I get very attached to my ideas, my opinions. Sometimes it's hard
to let go of tightly-held ideas but, unless we do, we don't grow.
One idea I let go of a couple of years ago was that I had to earn an income. It was a major revelation to me when I realized that if I sold all of my assets, I could afford to live quite comfortably for several years while I built a start-up business. I let go of the idea that I needed to cling on to the assets I had gained, like those spider monkeys. And it was one of the best things I ever did.
Oh, I thought you were the nut in this analogy!
Molly
Posted by: Phillip Molly Malone | Friday, March 17, 2006 at 08:46 AM
Cam, great story. I can (will) use this in productivity analogies, and also in karate talks.
Cheers mate.
Posted by: Des Paroz | Friday, March 17, 2006 at 09:40 AM
oh the humour, the simpsons eposide where homer does not want to let go of the can's of softdrink and so is stuck waiting for someone to rescue him.
Posted by: william dutton | Friday, March 17, 2006 at 12:36 PM
Nice post.
I have done something very similar in that I used equity is assets to free myself from wage slavedom whilst I pursued some dreams.
In this sense I got to keep the asset (putting money in my pocket) and use it's value at the same time.
Posted by: Andrew | Friday, March 17, 2006 at 04:58 PM
"Catching spider monkeys" is a great story, but if you actually believe it I've got some locked funds in Nigeria I'd like your help in releasing...
Dry Bones
Israel's Political Comic
Strip since 1973
Posted by: yaakov kirschen | Friday, March 17, 2006 at 11:14 PM
I suspected 'urban legend' and checked wikipedia but nothing was available under 'spider monkey' there.
Have you found some evidence Dry Bones to support this?
Posted by: Andrew | Saturday, March 18, 2006 at 01:32 PM
Hi This Story is prevailing in India too, but the monkey is not spider monkey.
Indian Story too has the same line and tone and it represents the stubbornness of people to stick to silly matters, instead of seeing the big picture.
Any way i am happy to see a similar story spread in West.
Bye
Posted by: Prince | Saturday, March 18, 2006 at 02:23 PM
Yer, I've heard it call the 'South India Money Trap'.
Like the high paid contractor (in an old technology area) who want/can't go to a lower paying gigs that will give him the new, improved skill set.
Posted by: Gnoll110 | Wednesday, March 22, 2006 at 02:07 PM
heyheyheyheyheyheyheyhey!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: chelsea cox | Wednesday, April 26, 2006 at 01:16 AM
very wierd story.Anways what do they do after they capture the monkeys?
Posted by: piranha in the amazon | Wednesday, May 10, 2006 at 06:20 AM
My dad had a lolly jar like that when I was a kid...
Posted by: Miriam Parkinson | Friday, May 26, 2006 at 10:39 PM
there r liveing breathing things not to be throne into a bag
Posted by: sassy | Friday, January 26, 2007 at 10:50 AM
heyy there im doing a science project and i choose this kind of animal!!! well i choose this kind of monkey because i love monkeys and im on a travaling volleyball team and we are called shendandoah spiders!!!
Posted by: Kait | Tuesday, March 20, 2007 at 01:21 AM
This is a great story for drug users and people with other such compulsivities.
You can see this in action of you watch a movie called Animals are Beautiful People, but the same people who wrote and produced The Gods Must be Crazy. A bushman traps a baboon this way.
Posted by: Deedee | Friday, March 30, 2007 at 05:21 AM
Hey this is a great page od information, the first time i heard of spider monkeys it was when my brother was being silly and putting names together that sounded stupuid so anyway he started yelling spider monkeys and being silly and mum said that there is such things as spider monkeys. lol
but when i heard that name i wondered how spider monkeys got there name. Do you know how spider monkeys got their name?
Posted by: Jacinta | Tuesday, April 10, 2007 at 01:20 PM
i have no clue why i am \writing this but i need help finding info on spider monkey nosies
Posted by: Tiffany | Tuesday, May 15, 2007 at 03:17 AM