Earlier this month we celebrated Independence Day.
But, Ann Mehl points out that there is a myth about independence.
To illustrate this she tells us an allegorical tale called “The Story of the Long Spoons”.
In it a man visits Heaven and Hell.
First, in Hell, he sees a banquette table laden with food and emaciated people all around it. They all have these very long spoons and can’t feed themselves with them. Their frustration exceeds their starvation.
In Heaven, the banquette is equally lush and the spoons are just as long, except the well fed people around that table have figured out that they can easily feed the people opposite them at the table.
Heaven and Hell offer similar circumstances but the difference is how people treat one another.
So, as we celebrate our Independence, let us also recognize that we live in a very fragile ecosystem in which everyone is dependent upon others for survival.
Doing things together gets things done, from building the transcontinental railroad years ago to launching a company through crowd funding today.
We need to tackle big things too, melting ice caps don’t just affect penguins, they also affect our weather.
By bringing people together, sharing our resources and our efforts, we can create healthier lives and a healthier economy. We have a nice little eco-system going here…..so feed the folks across the table here and we will all have our fill.
Happy Inter-Dependence Day…….
Mangia, Baby, Abbondanza!
