An election day parable: “You never know what’s for best or worst”

The farmer’s story

You’ve heard the story about the Zen farmer, haven’t you?

If not, mindfully pour yourself a cup of tea and settle in your comfy chair on this US election day, 2020. Something to perhaps momentarily take your mind off any stress or anxiety.

Once upon a time, a long long time ago (or maybe even today) a farmer worked his crops in his field. Day after day he toiled with his horse and plow turning up the good rich soil and planting millet or cabbage or carrots or maybe long slender daikon radish. My, he loved and appreciated that horse, his daily companion, the source of his humble income!

One day, perhaps a Tuesday, the horse disappeared. Ran away. Gone.

Can you imagine the horror? His very livelihood depended on his trusty brown-eyed loving horse companion.

Horse eye

His neighbors, feeling devastated for him, dropped by to commiserate.

“Oh, man,” they mourned, “we are so sorry! This is terrible news, just terrible. What will you do next? Why, you and your wife and children may even starve and die. Terrible news, just terrible! Such awful luck. Would you like to borrow our hoe and rake?”

The farmer, known far and wide for his spiritual wisdom, paused. The neighbors could see the sorrow and worry in his eyes. But he paused, looked up into the blue sky, sighed deeply and responded:

“You never know,” he said. “You never know what’s for the best or worst.”

The neighbors clucked and shook their heads–it was obviously the worst news ever, what was wrong with this guy? Just some too-spiritual mumbo-jumbo acceptance when obviously he should be crying his eyes out. They too sighed and headed home across the fields.

.

The next morning our farmer friend rolled out of bed before the rooster crowed. His sad-eyed wife served him a rich chicken broth with daikon radish and millet.

He walked to the barn. And there–over there, dear reader!–nickered his dear sweet horse–and he had brought home three wild horses!

The neighbors, being neighbors, heard immediately and sprinted across the fields to celebrate with our farmer.

“Oh, man, how wonderful!” the neighbors exclaimed. “This is fabulous, amazing, delightful! You will now be a very rich farmer with so many horses to help till your fields. How lucky you are!”

Our spiritual-leaning farmer leaned over to pet his Prodigal Son horse and looked his happy neighbors in the eyes. He smiled but said:

“You never know, my friends. You never know what’s for the best or worst.”

The neighbors rolled their eyes and walked back home. This guy: is he crazy or what? This is obviously the best news ever! He should be dancing a jig. What is wrong with him?

The farmer had a son with blue eyes. Everyone commented on his blue eyes. Where in the world did he get blue eyes? They looked at his brown-eyed parents and clucked their tongues, pondering all sorts of familial stories.

The blue-eyed son decided he would ride one of the wild horses. Of course he chose a stallion, the black one with rippling muscles and steel in his eyes.

As you can imagine, dear reader, the blue-eyed son rode the stallion for exactly three seconds before being rudely tossed on the ground next to the barn. He broke his leg in two places.

The neighbors arrived to offer sympathy about this great misfortune.

You know what our farmer said, don’t you? You’re getting the drift?

“You never know, my friends. You never know what’s for the best or worst.”

The next morning, while the young blue-eyed man moaned in pain in his attic bedroom, military officials appeared outside the farmer’s simple house.

“We are here to conscript all young men into the army!” the bossy macho commander shouted at the farmer.

“My son is upstairs,” the farmer replied, “but he has broken his leg yesterday and cannot walk.”

The commander sent a lackey to check, and sure enough, the blue-eyed son was passed by because of his broken leg.

The neighbors–oh those neighbors!–whose own precious son had been taken, appeared once again.

“You are so lucky!” exclaimed they, even with tears in their own eyes. “Who knew how lucky it would be to be thrown off a wild horse and break a leg yesterday?”

Our farmer, dear reader, paused and said–

“You never know, my friends. You never know what’s for best or worst.”

**I often think of this story when hearing of terrible or wonderful outcomes. We never truly know, do we? Something to ponder… **

** P.S. I kinda made up the details of the story. The “real” parable isn’t as exciting and probably wouldn’t hold your attention for as long on this Election Day in the US of A, 2020, when you may need some stories to keep your mind off things.

Day 17 of a seventy-five day journey to connect more deeply with God, Spirit, Holy, Love…to explore “What the Heart Knows” during the waning days of 2020.