I heard the following story (parable?) on the radio recently:
There was once a traveller who was walking from a village in the mountains to a village in the valley.
As he walked along, he saw a monk working the fields and asked, “I’m on my way to the village in the valley, can you tell me what it’s like?”
The monk looked up and asked the man where he had come from.
The man responded, “I have come from the village in the mountains.”
“What was that like?” the monk asked.
“Terrible!” the man exclaimed, “The people there were rude. The customs are bizarre. The beliefs are misplaced. They seemed to always hold back the truth!”
“Then I think that you will find that the village in the valley is much the same,” the monk noted.
A few hours later another traveller passed by and he said to the monk, “I am on my way to the village in the valley, can you tell what it’s like?”
“Where have you come from?” enquired the monk.
“I have come from the village in the mountains.”
“And what was that like?”
“Wonderfull! The people were respectful. The customs were delightfully refreshing. The discussions were invigorating, and I welcomed their opinions!”
“Then I think that you’ll find that the village in the valley is much the same,” responded the monk.
Since I was driving when I heard the story, I had to Google the story later, with the intent of simply copying and pasting the story to this blog, along with the credits. However, finding the source of the story (if there is one) became a pointless chase. What I did find was a very interesting, and inspirational blog post covering the social and scientific reasons us humans tend to be like the travelers in the above story. All due credit to Joshua Becker, WSJ Bestselling author of The More of Less.
Enjoy!
