Stone Soup

Once upon a time, somewhere in post-war Eastern Europe, there was a great famine in which people jealously hoarded whatever food they could find, hiding it even from their friends and neighbors. One day a wandering soldier came into a village and began asking questions as if he planned to stay for the night.

“There’s not a bite to eat in the whole province,” he was told. “Better keep moving on.”

“Oh, I have everything I need,” he said. “In fact, I was thinking of making some stone soup to share with all of you.” He pulled an iron cauldron from his wagon, filled it with water, and built a fire under it. Then, with great ceremony, he drew an ordinary-looking stone from a velvet bag and dropped it into the water.

By now, hearing the rumor of food, most of the villagers had come to the square or watched from their windows. As the soldier sniffed the “broth” and licked his lips in anticipation, hunger began to overcome their skepticism.

“Ahh,” the soldier said to himself rather loudly, “I do like a tasty stone soup. Of course, stone soup with cabbage — that’s hard to beat.”

Soon a villager approached hesitantly, holding a cabbage he’d retrieved from its hiding place, and added it to the pot. “Capital!” cried the soldier. “You know, I once had stone soup with cabbage and a bit of salt beef as well, and it was fit for a king.”

The village butcher managed to find some salt beef . . . and so it went, through potatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and so on, until there was indeed a delicious meal for all. The villagers offered the soldier a great deal of money for the magic stone, but he refused to sell and traveled on the next day. The moral is that by working together, with everyone contributing what they can, a greater good is achieved.

While there will undoubtedly be pockets of people who will have at least a couple of weeks of supplies on hand, the vast majority of people will likely not have enough of everything necessary to get through the banking/currency reset.

As the Stone Soup story shows, this need not be an insurmountable problem. Having community picnics or “pot luck” dinners are a terrific way to solve the problem of feeding a group of neighbors if commerce is completely shut down.

Other local customs of gathering friends, families, and neighbors can also be adapted. In some cultures, there are traditions of ‘hog roasts’ or the local ‘fish fry’. For a multitude of obvious reasons, these specific ideas won’t work in many areas. However, the point is to adapt local community-gathering traditions to fulfill a need during a time of great confusion and uncertainty.

Even in urban areas or communities which are heavily vegetarian, these ideas can be adapted to great success. Click on the link below to see a weekly tradition in one San Francisco community:

http://sf.funcheap.com/event-series/free-community-dinner/

Community Meal Pic #2

To repeat the moral of the Stone Soup story:

By working together, with everyone contributing what they can, a greater good is achieved.”

If human ingenuity is served with a large side of compassion, people can band together and get through any rough period of time. This will not be any different. Humanity can – and will – thrive during the EVENT.

Original article can be found at eventreference.org/2015/06/29/stone-soup/

(Italicized text originally found here: http://www.extremelinux.info/stonesoup/stonesoup.html)

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