This is a common riddle that we have come across at some point. I don’t know who asked it and why it was asked. But there are various clever responses to the question. The most common one being “to get to the other side”.
Before we figure out why the chicken crossed the road. Let’s talk about its cousin, the crow. Now, crows like to eat nuts. But because the nuts are hard to crack with their beaks, they typically fly up high and drop the nuts on the surface hoping that it will hit a hard surface and crack open. If the nut does not crack, the crow has to repeat the process several times. As you would imagine, this process can be tedious and boring.
Now, in Japan, wild crows have discovered a n exciting and efficient way of getting the job done. They drop the nuts in front of cars and wait for cars to crush the nuts as they move in traffic. This method seems to work most of the time.
However, the crow faces a small challenge. To access the crushed nuts on the road, they risk being run over by the fast-moving vehicles. To solve this problem, the crow drops the nut at the zebra crossing, so that it safely crosses during the red light with pedestrians and leisurely indulges in its favorite meal.
First, we can all agree that the crows were not born with an instinct to drop the nuts in the road, wait for cars to crush them and walk across the pedestrian crossing to indulge. They learnt to do so.
Maybe someday a crow accidentally dropped the nut on the road, saw it get crushed by a car and voila, light bulb moment. Of course, the other crows observed what the smart fellow was doing and the rest is now history.
This is similar to human beings. Our behaviors are mostly learnt and adaptive. We learn from our parents, peers and the society around us. We typically mimic others in our day-to-day activities. We talk, eat, walk, dress like the people around us. The people we identify with.
Kisiis and Merus are rumored to have legendary tempers. The tempers are largely a function of learning rather than genetics. Like the crows, we observe other people engaging in certain behaviors. Then we copy the behavior and sooner rather than later it becomes a habit. Our second nature.
So really, we don’t become who we were meant to be. We become whomever we observe and learn from. Whomever we copy.
So, why did the chicken cross the road?
Because other chickens crossed the road.
Life is life
Fabio