The Ram who Went a Different Route

Every day the flock trekked down all the way to the  river for a drink.  They went the same way every time; it was the closest point in the river, and the path had been trodden smooth.

One day, when they set of, an alert member of the flock said she saw some flickers of movement away off at their destination along the river.  The ram halted the flock for awhile and sniffed the air.  “Wolves, perhaps,” he said, and headed off the path into the rough country alongside the path to cross to a different point on the river.

At that, however, another member of the flock who was already showing signs of distress became even more agitated.

“You are breaking the norm!” she bleated.

Moral: We sometimes try to allay our fears with tried and trusted normalcy, when it is our normal course that has made us vulnerable to danger.