The Two Travelers
There was once a traveler who was walking from a village in the mountains to a village in the valley.
As he walked along, he saw a monk working in a field 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 there?” the monk asked.
“Terrible!” the man exclaimed, “no-one spoke my language, I had to sleep on a dirt floor in one of their houses, they fed me some sort of stew that had yak in it and the weather was atrocious.”
“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 traveler 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?”
“It was awesome!” the man replied, “No-one spoke my language so we had to communicate using our hands and facial expressions. I had to sleep on the dirt floor which was really cool as I’ve never done that before. They fed me some sort of weird stew and I have no idea what was in it but just to experience how the locals lived was great and the weather was freezing cold, which meant that I really got a taste of the local conditions. It was one of the best experiences of my life.”
“Then I think that you’ll find that the village in the valley is much the same,” responded the monk.
*****
What an awesome fable. It’s so true!
It doesn’t matter what environment you are in, your optimism and perspective shapes your reality.
Keep this in mind today as you travel to your next village.
Happy hump day!
– Joel
(Not sure of the origin of this fable, but I found it from this blog)
Sent by a reader in Tunisia 🇹🇳