Stone soup redux
Do two people looking at the same thing see the same thing? Do stories we carry from generation to generation mean the same?
My memory of the stone soup story: it’s set far away in late winter when villagers are hungry. Their cupboards and cellars, full at harvest, have little left. The days are short, the storms severe, and they worry about the wolves getting closer. They stay behind closed doors, ration the wood and scraps of food. Wait and pray they will live.
One day an old woman throws open her door and shouts to her neighbors that she has a recipe that will save them. They open doors and she hollers, “Stone soup! I will make stone soup for all!”
They, of course, think she’s crazy yet watch as she fills her largest pot with water, sets it on a roaring fire, and searches in the snow for the perfect stone to put in the pot.
They watch as the fire gets hotter, steam lifts off the surface, and one by one the neighbors wrap in blankets to join the old woman. And one by one they think, “Maybe this small potato (or carrot, turnip) will improve the flavor,” until each has added something to the pot.
They watch, they smell the delicious steam, bring bowls, and gather to enjoy the soup knowing they will survive as long as they remember the recipe for stone soup.
Even as a kid I knew stones don’t make soup but remembered the story year after year as a family of seven sat around a large table eating food we all had something to do with. I loved the story then and love it even more today when our lives depend on coming together for common good.
Do all people see or hear the same thing? No. I have been told it’s a story of the few taking advantage of those who have more, the welfare frauds. I know that in a larger sense we need even that view, that stone, to create a soup that will nourish all. We need to come together with our differences. Not to push the metaphor too far, we need each other just as that storied old woman proved to her cold, hungry, and isolated neighbors.
These stories are always far off, people afraid of starvation and wolves, and always some oddball, some crazy old woman, saves the day. Hats off to oddballs and crazy old women!