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Friday, June 15, 2007
How To Put Our World Back Together
Here's a story that comes from the vast mythology of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It goes like this: Somewhere, in a time like our own, a father is pensively trying to solve the world's problems, when his little boy comes in and says, "Father, I want to help." The weary man appreciates the gesture but only feels the child's presence as a hindrance. But the boy persists. So the father takes a map of the world and rips it into little pieces, gives them to the boy, and says, "I know you like puzzles. You can help by piecing the world back together." The boy protests, "But Father, I don't even know what the world looks like!" His father laughs, "Nonetheless, this is how you can help," and he sends him off, expecting that this will occupy his son for days.
And so the pensive man returns to his weary reflections. Two days later, his son comes bounding in, shouting, "Father! Father! I've put the world back together!" And sure enough, all the torn pieces are taped into a beautiful whole. His father is stunned. "But how did you do this?"
The boy is eager to show him and turns the map of the world over, saying, "On the back was a picture of a person, Father. I put the person back together and then turned it over and the world was back together!"
From The Exquisite Risk by Mark Nepo
And so the pensive man returns to his weary reflections. Two days later, his son comes bounding in, shouting, "Father! Father! I've put the world back together!" And sure enough, all the torn pieces are taped into a beautiful whole. His father is stunned. "But how did you do this?"
The boy is eager to show him and turns the map of the world over, saying, "On the back was a picture of a person, Father. I put the person back together and then turned it over and the world was back together!"
From The Exquisite Risk by Mark Nepo
posted by Carol at 10:47 AM
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