Large becomes small.
Whilst the serpent waited, he would occasionally descend from his tree to search for some variety in his diet.
The world was very new, and not everything had yet found its proper place. On one idle departure from his tree the snake encountered a little bird nestling upon the ground.
In these early days all birds nested on the ground, amongst the stones and rocks. This bird rested upon three large round and creamy eggs that seemed much too large to have issued from such a little bird.
The eggs glistened in the sun and caught the snake’s eye, so he stopped and perched himself upon a warm rock to observe. The little bird’s little neck swivelled to an fro, as its twinkling little eyes scanned the horizon for threats to it’s oversized and valuable investment.
The bird’s behaviour struck the snake as odd, sitting upon the ground to protect its delicious eggs. The bird was so nervous and frantic, never resting from its skittish survey and likely never sleeping.
Eventually, the snake spoke. “You can’t trust anyone these days”.
The bird stopped its frantic survey, to look the snake squarely in the eye, thankful to have at last detected the encounter it so dreaded.
“You most certainly cannot!” the little bird twittered anxiously, “But what am I to do, if I must protect my eggs, but look this way and that, all day and all night?”.
The sun kissed rock filled the snake with a lazy warmth as he considered the little bird’s plight. Should this bird fall asleep, anyone who wanted to could steal these delicious eggs right out from under the little bird. An obvious solution was to be found nearby.
“Why don’t you rest you and your eggs up in my tree?” the snake suggested.
The little bird paused for just a moment to consider this proposal from such a helpful snake, and yet rejected the idea immediately.
“Have you seen the shape of these eggs?” the little bird replied. “They are round round round, and so they roll roll roll!”.
The little bird had a point. Fate had been unkind to this little bird, and had burdened her with precious possessions that were inclined to roll away. Hence, the three large eggs were wedged tightly into the rocks that made this nest. In the pursuit of a solution, the snake did not give up so easily as the bird.
“Why not make such a nest in the trees?” the snake countered “Then they cannot roll away”.
The little bird fixed the snake with a look of exasperation. Was the bird’s plight not obvious? How could such a stony throne be hauled up into the branches of such a tall tree by such a small bird?
The little bird made her case at length, twittering, chirping and chattering about the weight of her nest and the height of the tree, the size of her little wings, the propensity of the eggs to roll, and how improbable a perch so far from the ground might be, all the while gesticulating with her little wings this way and that and on occasion hopping from one foot to the other.
The snake sat patiently through this tirade. The snake had a great deal of patience, and would happily wait until the end of time to gain his end, if necessary. He had to admit that once more the little bird had a point.
If she must build a nest high up in a tree, this nest must not only be large enough to hold three huge eggs and also strong enough to support their weight, it must also be both small enough and light enough for the little bird to hoist far up in to the branches of a tree.
This was sufficient paradox to boggle the mind, but a solution quickly came to the snake. A prompt was required.
“The feathers of a bird are many” the snake began “to offer a large structure that can catch the wind”.
The bird stopped in her nattering and gesticulation, to gaze at her own outstretched wings, as if seeing them for the first time.
“And yet these grand wings are so lightweight that a bird can quickly leap into the air and up to safety” the snake continued. “I should know”.
The proud little bird ignored this final taunt as she admired her wings some more, marvelling at each fine feather, and at the ever finer feathery detail within each, and each small detail within that.
The little bird soon understood and resumed her frantic survey, this way and that. However, on this occasion she pursued a quite different opportunity to protect her eggs.
The great apple tree often shed small branches in the strong winds that had made the world. Taking brief chances away from her eggs, the little bird flitted to each small twig, hoisted this twig high into the tree, then quickly returned to stand guard over her eggs for just a moment, looking this way and that.
This cycle was repeated for much of the afternoon as each piece, twig by twig, was carried into the tree to be woven into an entirely new type of nest. The first ever nest made from twigs was both large and strong, and yet each part to be carried high into the tree was small and lightweight.
Soon the little bird had completed her new nest, but a problem remained. How was such a little bird to lift three such large eggs up into the tree?
Each egg was large and indivisible, and so no elegant solution was to be found, even by the snake. Vexed, the snake slowly unwrapped its coils from the warm rock, and slithered towards the old rocky nest.
The little bird trembled with suspense at this sudden advance, and let out a short squawk as the snake wrapped its coils around each egg. However, she need not have concerned herself, for the snake transported the eggs up into the tree and deposited each into her new nest safe amongst the branches.
The little bird followed the snake up into the branches, to nestle herself into her new home with her eggs. At last, the little bird could get some sleep.
Pleased with this outcome, the snake retreated into the dark canopy of the tree, satisfied that his eggs were now safe from any other predator looking to steal away his meal.
Solution 1. Segmentation: If a mechanism exhibits an unreconcilable contradiction, divide the object into separate parts. Fragment the object into powders, grains, droplets, etc. Split the object into independent functions. If the object is already broken into pieces, remember the opposite, and merge it into a single piece.
