The Fable of Stone Soup

[imported_Volrina]

I remember this story when I was in grade school about a nomad that traveled around the country and when he was hungry he would go into a town and proclaim that he could make soup from a stone. The townsfolk were skeptical but at the same time enticed by the claim and so they offered every assistance including water, spices, vegetables, and meat to help him make his stone soup. In the end the town was all gathered conversing, eating, enjoying the fellowship that resulted from their very own labors but somehow unaware that they had in fact been duped.

Now the question I put to you is was it a con or was it a way to get the entire town involved in something that benefited everyone or maybe was it both? Is it sometimes necessary to use misdirection in order to make large strides toward the greater good?

 

[Guest]

I think the tale can be interpreted as ..both.

On the one hand ya have someone that in theory has nothing, gets the entire town to *donate* into the soup fixings and makings can be much like the perverbial scam con artist. BUT since said person also managed to share it all with everyone, instead of self hording all that soup, it does tend to make one wonder about what lengths sometimes ordinary folks feel they maybe need to go to to ever get any co operation or for them to get folks to see beyond their noses to co operate together. *also felt perhaps he may have been testing them, they too tight to share to uncaring that a person with merely a stone to make soup might be looked down upon, not as wealthy, yet thru his words, his creativity, not only got enough food/co operations, for himself but for the greater good for.. all of them.

Thus I also felt he may be teaching never to judge a book by it's cover or their lack of one thing, maybe choc full of something else we do not possess. . be it compassion or wit or something ..we are all given gifts, talents, wealth, yet it is all unevenly distributed all unalike, whom are we to judge a man with a stone for his soup...when maybe all we had were carrots. Can not make a soup with any one item usually or be merely a broth..and not as filling nor fullfilling.

Did he con em...or was he just witty enough to enable them to see a soup takes more ingredients to make it hearty than a stone..or just water or carrots alone.. ie our own talents, riches, or unalike blessings we are a collage of humanity/ingredients our own selves each and every one of us unalike as snowflakes .. and that what makes the soup ..so special, lots of different ingredients.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

Now the question I put to you is was it a con or was it a way to get the entire town involved in something that benefited everyone or maybe was it both? Is it sometimes necessary to use misdirection in order to make large strides toward the greater good?

[/ QUOTE ]

OOO?

Lat mak konphuzin kwestun.

Da reel kwestun ib... Wud dere bi clompin?

Ib dere wud muur clompin, diz wud bi bubhosh.

Clompin makz eberiteeng muur bubhosh.

 

[imported_Gwyneth]

I don't see it as a con, somehow. True, he had little to offer, but he inspired efforts that had a postive result. Perhaps that was his mission... to demonstrate that people of good will can make something happen with very little, just by cooperation.

 

[Guest]

I was about ten when I read that story. We all know kids do wierd things and while it's somewhat embarassing to admit, I had a habit of tasting everything. I got my tongue bit by a spider doing so but that's an entirely different story. My point being that rocks DO have flavor. They are, after all, minerals. Ever notice how mineral enhanced bottled water tastes better than the totally purified bottled water? And so at the time, it made perfect sense to me to use a rock to flavor a soup.

To me the book seemed an illustration in giving. Yes, you could have hot mineral water or a pile of bland carrots, a head of cabbage, etc if you kept what you had to yourself. If you gave it away, it came back to you as far more.

Did he misdirect folks? I suppose it depends on his perspective. If he saw the good in people knowing they would give, then no. He knew that rock was enough to bring out the good or at least curiousity in others and it really did make soup.




And it wouldn't have tasted as good without that stone.

 

[Guest]

I tried to make stone soup as a kid.

Took a pretty good sized round polished cleaned up stone and covered it in water to try to make *stone soup* minus all the other people's ingredients. Course then I forgot about it watching some cartoons on the tv set..next thing I know my mom is yelling at me for ruining a pan of her's cuz I forgot I was making stone soup..and all the water was gone and well one cooked rock but no soup and a yelling !

Thus this child learned that while there is that saying that a watched pot may never boil or take forever to boil cuz we are watching it, leave it unwatched for too long, and for sure it not only gonna boil but ..boil over, loose all the water and get our selves in trouble.

 

[Guest]

Oh that made me giggle and at the risk of driving this thread terribly off topic, it reminded me of my own childhood cooking mishap. My mom was the type that figured if children weren't allowed to experiment in a kitchen, they'd never learn to cook so she allowed me to bake cookies on my own. I was nine at the time and had made Russian tea cakes (my favorite) many times but for some reason I wasn't paying as close attention. I mistook tbs for ts for the SALT!

My family still teases me about those cookies.

 

[Malee]

I had always heard it as soilders returning from service. They were hungry and penniless. They asked the townspeople of a town they were passing through for a few veggies to eat. The people told them they had none either. The soilders, knowing better, thought of stone soup in order to get the veggies so they could eat. They shared to soup after to give the townspeople a feeling of guilt at the way they treated the soilders.

 

[Gowron]

It's merely a fable to get people to cooperate and exercise teamwork. Of course, I could make the same arguement for Santa Clause. Even though he brings toys to all the good boys and girls, is he still guilty of breaking and entering, or perhaps trespassing?

 

[Guest]

*smiles*

Not to mention labor laws, I have never heard of Santa paying...his sweatshop working elves have you ?

 

[Gowron]

<blockquote><hr>

*smiles*

Not to mention labor laws, I have never heard of Santa paying...his sweatshop working elves have you ?

[/ QUOTE ]

It's a Democrat thing. He pays them, but all their pay goes to their universal health care and room and board.

Sorry Cheap Joke. To make it more politically even, I'll throw this in...

It's a Republican thing. The Elves Union was busted and the Toy Shop was relagated to hiring EA Mythic Scabs.

 

[Guest]

Them elves are probably outsourced help too !! 12 cents a day is a big wage to em, and Santa called it helping the *economy* of a poorer nation...while our elves hit the unemployment lines hungry in our own nation.

 

[imported_Gwyneth]

OUR poor elves won't even have Social Security the way things are going.