Once a novice approached the master and said:

- I think I understand the Perl-nature. It is like the C-nature, but with built-in regexes and hashes.

The master smiled and said:

- For the Wolf to survive in the mountain, she must be able to fight. For the Eagle to survive in the mountain, she must be able to fly. For the Salmon to survive in the mountain, she must be able to swim. The Wolf, the Eagle, the Salmon; these are all good at what they do.

However, there is another species which survives in the mountain: the Man. The Man does not have a strong bite, or wings, or gills. Indeed, the Man is poor at all of these things, and would lose in a fight against the Wolf, or in a swim against the Salmon. However, the Man does all those things, and therein lies its power - by doing all things, and by knowing what to do, the Man not only survives in the mountain, he also builds a monastery to teach his disciples to be like the Wolf, or the Hawk, or the Salmon.

Perl is like the Man. It thrives where other languages perish, not by being the best at any given thing, but by being able to do it all, and by knowing to take advantage of this ability. Like the Man, Perl is a generalist. And so must be the Perl programmer, for the only way to achieve the Perl-nature is to become one with it.