A traveler coming into a town beset by famine. The
inhabitants try to discourage the traveler from staying, fearing he wants them
to give him food. They tell him in no uncertain terms that there's no food
anywhere to be found. The traveler explains that he doesn't need any food and
that, in fact, he was planning to make a soup to share with all of them.
The villagers watch suspiciously as he builds a fire and
fills a cauldron with water. With great ceremony, he pulls a stone from a bag,
dropping the stone into the pot of water. He sniffs the brew extravagantly and
exclaims how delicious stone soup is. As the villagers begin to show interest,
he mentions how good the soup would be with just a little cabbage in it. A
villager brings out a cabbage to share.
This episode repeats itself until the soup has cabbage,
carrots, onions, and beets-indeed, a substantial soup that feeds everyone in
the village.
Lesson Learned:
This story addresses the human tendency to hoard in times of
deprivation. When resources are scarce, we pull back and put all of our energy
into self-preservation. We isolate ourselves and shut out others. As the story
of stone soup reveals, in doing so, we often deprive ourselves and everyone
else of a feast.
This metaphor plays out beyond the realm of food. We hoard
ideas, love, and energy, thinking we will be richer if we keep to them to
ourselves, when in truth we make the world, and ourselves, poorer whenever we
greedily stockpile our reserves. The traveler was able to see that the
villagers were holding back, and he had the genius to draw them out and inspire
them to give, thus creating a spread that none of them could have created
alone.
Are you like one of the villagers, holding back? If you come
forward and share your gifts, you will inspire others to do the same. The
reward is a banquet that can nourish many. Remember, the more you give, the
more you get!
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