I want to tell you a story about a Giant.
Now this Giant was a kind and gentle Giant, certainly not the type who went around terrorising villages. As such he was loved by the local townspeople for all the good that he did. Protecting the townspeople from other giants, hosting regular feasts, helping those in need and even acting as judge in the local court. The whole town was very pleased and regularly spoke highly of the Giant to each other, an act the giant did nothing to stop the townsfolk praise.
One day a villager came to the giant, he told the giant about some trouble that was rising in the village. Some people from a nearby tribe had settled on the outside of the village, not within the realms of the villagers terrain but very close to it. They had started to grow their own wheat there and had even been using the same water supply as the villagers.
At first the Giant wondered why the villagers were worried. Surely this had nothing to do with the villagers? After all it was outside the village territory. However he realised that this was the territory the villagers would need to expand into if the village grew, and on top of that there was the risk of the new village expanding into the Giants village.
The Giant thought long and hard about what to do, he thought about his villagers and although he was sure they didn't currently need the territory on the other side of the river his mind was full of what if's. What if we do nothing and then in 5, 10 years time we have grown too big for here? What will we do then? All the villagers will think I was the coward to afraid to act.
So the giant started to think of a plan, he considered going to the villagers and talking to them about the problem, maybe they could come to some sort of agreement. However this plan had a big problem, what if this prepared them for what was to come. And so the Giant had another idea.
Late that night the Giant put his armour on and set of to the river. When he arrived he let out a might roar waking the sleeping villagers from their sleep. As they ran, panic stricken outside he ordered them to leave the village for good and never come back. Immediately the villagers ran away without returning to their homes and only with the clothes they had on their backs.
The Giant returned to his village to a hero's welcome. A parade was organised and many songs and poems were written about his kind and generous heart to risk his own safety for the villagers.
The next evening a man snuck into the Giants house and confronted him. He Shouted into the Giants ear and raised him from the depths of his slumber. The Giant demanded to know who the Man was and why he was here. The villager explained his story and that of his whole tribe. How they had been fought across the country, how they kept settling in different areas and yet they were always chased away by someone else and how they had heard about the kind and generous Giant and hope they would be safe here at last. The village told the Giant about how they were preparing a great feast for the two villages to show that they weren't a threat.
The Giant was crushed, he hadn't even considered what the other villagers had gone through or why they were there, he only thought about what his villagers thought about him and tried to maintain that reputation. The Giant started to think, what should he do next, he thought about speaking to the villagers again. If he spoke to them maybe they would understand and feel moved by their situation...but then the Giant thought about the villagers reaction, they had been so negative straight away and didn't even want to know about the other villagers situation, they were only worried about their land and looking after their future families. As he thought about it he realised they wouldn't want to hear what the other villagers had to say, in fact they would probably be angry at the Giant for speaking to them about it!
He was sure they would start to wonder if the Giant was really loyal to them or if he was loyal to something else, pretty soon they wouldn't start to criticise him behind his back and question if he really was the Kind Giant they had thought before. He didn't know what to do...
