Lion: That certainly is a catchy title, wouldn’t you agree Ox?

Ox: Not really. Actually, and I hate to say it, that seems like a preposterously dull title! If you gave me a whole minute, Lion, I bet I could not think of a duller title!

Lion: How can you say that Ox?! I find it completely fascinating!

Ox: C’mon Lion! After the recent elections, and with the price of gasoline and the cost of living being what they are, you can’t really think there is much appeal to the subject!

Lion: Don’t tell me, Ox, that you have let your intellect become dominated by the ever changing passions, fashions and customs of the day! Goodness gracious! Haven’t we spoken about the dangers of these enough?!

Ox: Go ahead Lion. Talk about Liberal education if you want to but… a piece of advice. First, no one really cares. Second, you never really get anywhere! All you do is engage in specious word games.

Lion: Specious word games?

Ox: Like when you were so upset by those who confuse the “humanities” with sciences like philosophy and Theology.

Lion: that really is infuriating.

Ox: No it isn’t! Except for those who who really don’t have anything better to do! Face it, arguments about whether Theology is the “queen of the sciences” and whether philosophy is a “science” or whether we can call these two sciences “humanities” like literature and history are just a waste of time. It’s all just semantics!

You really would be better off if you just gave all this up and gave your attention to things that really do matter….like hunting slow, medium to large sized, hoofed animals! That’s what any proper self-respecting apex predator would do!

Lion: Ox, you disappoint me. Just because you are an Ox doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t aspire to be something more than an Ox does it? No sir! And just because I am an Apex predator doesn’t mean I can’t climb any higher!

I am not content. I want more! You need to put aside all this worry about the present moment and use that great big head of yours for something more than sleep and feeding. Don’t you remember Hamlet’s 49 word exhortation to use reason?!

What is a Lion, 
If his chief good and market of his time 
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more. 
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, 
Looking before and after, gave us not 
That capability and god-like reason 
To fust in us unused. 

Ox: Lion?

Lion: Yes, Ox.

Ox: That’s not what Hamlet said.

Lion: No?

Ox: He said “What is a Man” not “What is a lion”.

Lion: Really?

Ox: Really.

Lion: Well… let’s not quibble over words.