Inequality

I have probably been reading too much mass media lately, because I find myself very cynical about the future. But one morning a few days ago, as I was doing some cooking, I was reminded of a story told by one of the speakers in General Conference not long ago. I’m going to paraphrase that story.

Two men shared a field that they both worked to plant, tend, and harvest. One of the men lived alone, while the other one had a large family. One day, perceiving an inequality, the first man decided it wasn’t fair that he should get a half share of the harvest when he had only himself to provide for. So he went out in the night and transferred a large portion of the harvest to the pile of his neighbor and went to bed happy. Meanwhile, the second man perceived an inequality. He decided it wasn’t fair that he should get a half share of the harvest when he had so many sons to help him and his neighbor was all alone. So he went out in the night and transferred a large portion of the harvest to the pile of his neighbor and went to bed happy. In the morning, when the discovery was made what had happened in the night, they talked it over and were touched and amused, and they parted friends.

What strikes me about this is that neither one of them had very much—they were just simple farmers—but both of them were able to see that they had blessings beyond those of their neighbor, and their first thoughts were of sharing. I would assume that the sonless neighbor would have shared food from his own table if there were ever any want in the house of his friend. I would assume that the family man neighbor would have taken in his friend in their waning years so that he wouldn’t suffer old age uncared for.

This story wasn’t about a Utopia, or an idealistic dream of world peace and equality. There wasn’t any protesting or sitting around in parks. It wasn’t someone demanding his rights or shirking his responsibilities. Neither one of them went to the government to demand that their neighbor’s taxes be raised, and neither of them whined that they had less and should therefore be entitled to more of a share. Neither of them sat in opulence and judged the other’s difficulties or asked for a loan to buy something that would make their workload lighter. They didn’t give away anything they didn’t have. They didn’t complain that they didn’t have money to hire someone else to do the heavy work. They didn’t call each other a liar or a hypocrite; they didn’t blame each other for not having more of a harvest.

They worked hard, they thanked God, and they loved their neighbor.

The American people are generous. I think maybe not all, but most, want what is good for their neighbors as well as what is good for themselves. And if that isn’t true, well… we have a hard road ahead of us. But I, for one, would wish to live my life like those two fine farmers, refusing to see myself as less fortunate than my neighbor, and striving to always eradicate what inequalities I can.