a parable

There is a Hasidic parable:  A man is shown a vision of the afterlife.  He is first shown a great hall with a long banquet table filled with ambrosial delights.   Each diner is equipped with a three-foot-long spoon, but no matter how much they contort their arms, thrusting their elbows into their neighbors' faces, their utensils are too long to maneuver even a single morsel into their gaping mouths.  They sit together, opposite and side by side, in mutual misery.

"This," says the man's otherworldly guide, "is Hell."

The visitor is then taken to another place and sees an identical banquet table set with the same sumptuous viands and the same impossible silverware.  Only here the denizens are well fed, utterly joyous, glowing with health and well-being.

"This," pronounces his host, "is Heaven."

The man is baffled.  "What's the difference?"

"In Heaven,"  says the guide, pointing delightedly as a person lifts his long-handled spoon across the table to the parted lips of a neighbor, "they feed each other."

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i have been the recipient of such fine and generous sharing during this last year.   i feel deeply nourished and i am eternally grateful.   thank you to those generous beings, you know who you are - if i haven't already lifted the long-handled spoon to your lips, i certainly will!

may we all be well nourished in mind, body and spirit in the new year.