A Jewish fable:

Once upon a time, a weary traveler named Isaac was granted a special opportunity to see heaven and hell. An angel guided Isaac through a magical doorway, and they found themselves in a magnificent room with a long table in the center. The table was filled with the most delicious food imaginable, a feast beyond compare.

Curious, Isaac looked around and noticed that the people seated at the table seemed sad and famished. He soon realized why: each person had long, unwieldy spoons for arms. The spoons were so long that they couldn’t reach their own mouths, and despite the tantalizing food before them, they were unable to eat.

Feeling puzzled, Isaac asked the angel about the strange scene. The angel explained, “These are the people in hell. They have been given the same feast as those in heaven, but they cannot eat because their spoons are too long to feed themselves.”

Intrigued, Isaac asked the angel to show him heaven. They passed through another doorway and arrived in a similar room with a long table filled with delectable food. To Isaac’s surprise, the people in heaven also had long spoons for arms.

But here was the difference: the people in heaven were nourished and joyful. They, too, had spoons they couldn’t manipulate to feed themselves, but instead of wallowing in despair, they were using their spoons to feed each other. Each person picked up food with their long spoon and reached across the table to feed their neighbor.

Isaac marveled at the scene, realizing that the people in heaven had discovered the secret to true fulfillment. By selflessly helping one another, they not only satisfied their own hunger but also built a community based on compassion and cooperation.

As the story goes, the fable of “The Long Spoons” teaches us the importance of kindness, empathy, and mutual support. It reminds us that when we extend a helping hand to others, we create a better world for everyone, not just ourselves.

By: Pablo Neruda

Now if you’d leave me in peace.

Now if you’d get on without me.

I am going to close my eyes

And I only want five things,

five favorite roots.

The first is love without end.

The second is to see autumn.

I cannot be without leaves

flying away and returning to earth.

Third is grave winter,

the rain I loved, the caress

of a fire in a wilderness of cold.

In fourth place is summertime

round like a watermelon.

The fifth thing is your eyes,

Matilde, my love, my beloved,

I don’t want to sleep without your eyes,

I don’t want to be without you seeing me:

I’d trade springtime

for your gaze still upon me.

My friends, all of that is what I want.

It’s nearly nothing and almost everything.

And now if you wish you may leave.

So much have I lived that one day

you’ll have to make yourselves forget me,

erasing the blackboard of me:

my heart was endless.

But just because I ask for silence

don’t go thinking I’m about to die:

au contraire!:

it so happens I am going to be lived.

It just so happens that I am and I keep being.

I will not be dying for within me

grains will grow,

first the kernels that break through

the ground to see light,

but mother earth is dark:

and inside me I am dark:

I am like a well in whose waters

the nighttime leaves her stars

and goes on alone through the fields.

This is about my having lived so much

that I want to live another much.

Never have I felt such resonance,

never have I had so many kisses.

Now, as always, it is early.

The light takes flight with her bees.

Leave me alone with this day.

I ask permission to be born.