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A traveler came into a town where everyone was sad, weighted down with troubles and sorrow. Everywhere he went, the inn where stayed, the marketplace where he bought bread, the well where he stopped to get a drink, nothing but sorrow and gloom.
Being a clever, if not exactly wise man, he went to the mayor of the town and told him "I can help everyone with their troubles." At first the mayor didn't believe him, but the mayor was weighted with trouble himself, and so was willing to accept any help at this point, so he called all the people in town into the square and told them of the traveler's offer.
"Get a good sturdy sack", he said. "Put your trouble and sorrow into this sack and tie it off, and tomorrow, bring it to the village square." Of course, there were cries and complaints of there being no sack large enough to contain their particular troubles, but in the end, the townsfolk all did as he'd asked them.
The next morning, they came to the square to find that the traveler had strung a strong rope from one side of the square to the other. "Now", he said "Tie your bags to the rope and stand back." The townsfolk did so. Once everyone was standing well back from the rope the traveler said "You must now choose a sack to return home with." All the townsfolk started looking for the smallest sack, naturally, but then this started them thinking. The miller's youngest child was not only frail, but of limited understanding. The cobbler's son had gone to be a soldier, and no one had heard from him in much too long. The baker was a widow with seven children, all too young to be of much help to her...but they all needed to be fed. The butcher's aging mother was no treat to live with...on and on, they thought about how each of their neighbors had troubles of their own...and in the end, every person ran straight to his or her own sack and took it home with them.
The traveler smiled and continued his journey, leaving the town a much happier place than it had been when he arrived. ****************************************************
I'd make some choices differently, if I knew then what I knew now...but then if I did, those choices probably wouldn't be the same ones. Does that make sense?
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