Character: Head, Arms, Body, Legs
Setting: Long ago. Everywhere
Plot: Head wants to eat cherries but he cannot reach it.
Genre: Folk Tale
Perspective: Third-person viewpoint
The story "Heads, Arms, and Legs” retold by Won-Ldy Paya & Margaret H. Lippert. Normally Head eats whatever he could reach with his tongue on the ground. One day Head wants to eat cherries. Head sees two Arms and invites Arms to join as a team working together to get cherries. Later, Head and Arms meet Body. They ask Body to join them so they can swim across the river. When they reach the bank of the river, they try to get mangoes. Head accidentally mistaken Legs as a stick. Then Head invited Legs to join them. Head, Arms, Body, and Legs join together and move to the right position. They work as a team and finally get mangoes. This story teaches me three things about advantages and disadvantages, teamwork, and invitation skills.
Everyone has his advantages and disadvantages because everyone is not perfect. You just have to do your best with what you have and overcome what you don’t have. Head has eyes to see but has no hands. Arms have hands to pick up things but they have no eyes. Body can help to swim but has no eyes or hands. Legs can stand with two feet on the ends but have no hands or eyes. We need to face reality. We need to learn how to handle the advantages and disadvantages. Like in the story, Head has eyes to see but has no arms or hands to pick up things. Arms have hands to pick up things but they have no eyes to see. They both have good things and bad things. But each one of them makes good use of the advantages and avoids the disadvantages. People help each other to cover their disadvantages so they can make better results. People need to handle advantages and disadvantages in a correct way with positive attitudes.
Teamwork lets everyone bring his own advantages to solve problems successfully. Teamwork means different people work together on the same task. They help each other, join as a team, to finish the task efficiently and effectively. Head wanted to eat cherries but he couldn’t. Head meets Arms. Arms have no eyes to see, but they have hands to pick up things. Head has no hands to pick up things, but he has eyes to see things. Head and Arms get together, and they eat cherries. Teamwork is important because everyone has his own advantages and disadvantages. Like in this story, Head has the advantage of seeing which could cover the Arms’s disadvantage of not seeing. Same, Arms have the advantages of grabbing things which could cover Head’s advantage of not getting things. So Arms and Head cooperate together to get cherries. If they don’t combine together, they cannot get what they want. They only individually get what they are able to get. One person’s advantage could be the other person’s disadvantage and they can help each other to get things done.
When people want to team up with others, they need to make sure they have good invitation skills. Good invitation skills means that people need to present their advantages, show their uniqueness before others, and talk about the possible good results. Head invites Arms and says “ I have eyes to see and you have hands for picking things to eat”. Then Head invites Body and says “If you help us swim over there, I’ll help you see where you’re going.” Later. Head invites Legs and says “I have eyes. I can show you where to go and you can help us reach those mangoes.” Head, Arms, Body, and Legs join together and they finally get mangoes. Head sends invitations to Arms, Body, and Legs. If you look closely, you can see that Head always says positive things. He never says negative things. Like he says “I have eyes I can see, you have arms you can reach things.” instead of saying “ you don’t have eyes to see you are blind” In other words, you have something good and I have something good. This is what we call a “win-win situation”. Also, Head always says his goodness or his advantages first, which gives the reasons to persuade others why they should join Head. If Head does not say how great he is, others might easily think Head is just using them or taking advantage of them. Last, Head promises they will have good results or good consequences if they work together. Head really knows what he is doing. When working with others, people need to let others know that they are irreplaceable and unique, even others might rely on them.
"Heads, Arms, and Legs” is an interesting story. It helps me to understand that not everyone is perfect. Everyone has his own advantages and disadvantages. When people work together for the same task, a person’s advantage could cover another’s disadvantages. Everyone shows his best part and team up to finish the task successfully. But people need to learn some invitation skills so other people would agree to join you. To invite others, people need to say positive comments, show how great they are, and tell the possible great consequences. I recommend this story to anyone who is curious about how Head, Arms, Body, and Legs work together.
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