James and his tribe were on a long journey across harsh and varied land.
James was stronger, faster, and more adaptable than the rest of his group. So he took on a position of natural leadership. He was never designated the leader. People just followed his advice and relied on him for help.
Often, at night, it was James who would organize the scrounging parties to find food and water and James would lead the hunting party to procure the meat.
James enjoyed the recognition and status. The more accolades he received, the harder he worked and the more he gave. In time, he was the first one awake and the last one to sleep.
As the trek led the small population up into a mountain range, the going got tougher.
Occasionally, a member of James' tribe would fall down and he would right them. Things became increasingly difficult and, eventually, the group began to encounter little climbs that not all of the members of the tribe could make. Naturally, James would pull them up the steep hills, himself.
Gradually, James's outlook turned for the worse.
Where he once saw an opportunity to give, he came to see a gaggle of freeloaders who take. Where once he saw a crowd adoring him and hanging on his every move, he grew to see a mob impatiently issuing demands.
One day, he looked down into a still pond and he saw a martyr where he had expected to see an hero.
Disgruntled though he was, still he pressed on.
"We just have to get over the mountains and settle, then they'll start doing their part," he told himself, silently.
The winter must have heard his thoughts and taken issue with the word "just" because it was the next day that the snows began.
It was James who helped people build shelters and James built the fires. James went for the wood and James foraged for the food.
Eventually, James couldn't do it all, himself.
A young man named Albert found him collapsed in the snow and dragged him into a shelter, near a fire.
Albert realized that James would need food. In fact, they all would. He went from shelter to shelter and explained the situation.
The temporary village began to organize and went out to procure resources. Each one of them could collect only at tenth what James could gather in the same period of time but there were hundreds of them, so it didn't take long for them to complete the task.
James would require many weeks to recover and, in that time, the village became more self-sufficient and, in fact, made itself a permanent fixture on the mountainside.
When James was nearly ready to return to his duties, he asked the woman caring for him a simple question "How did you manage without me?"
The woman smiled and said "You knew and could do so much that we relied on you, at first. But then you changed. You stopped answering our questions and started doing the work," she continued.
"Someone who fell asked you how you stayed so sure-footed and you picked him up. Someone struggling to climb a bluff asked how you maintained your grip and you hauled him to the ledge, yourself. We asked you how to find food and you led the parties. We asked you how to stay secure and you played the sentry. We asked you how to build shelters and you started building shelters.
"Eventually," she said. "We became so used to you doing things for us that we just gave up and told you what we wanted.
"When we found you unconscious, we were no longer able to continue that way. We had to figure out what to do or die."
"So?" asked James.
"So," she said with a smile. "We chose to learn."
