LOVE AND LONG SPOONS

This is a story I heard a long time ago. I will write it down as I remember it, since I have never had it in print anywhere.

There was once a Man who thought much about what Heaven and Hell were like. He spent many hours trying to imagine either of them, but was finally no nearer than when he started. Who could help him?

There was an Angel who saw the Man and knew of his desire to understand Heaven and Hell. The Angel took pity on him and appeared to the Man saying, “Come with me, I will show you what they look like.”

First they went to the gates of Hell. The Man looked in and saw many people sitting at a big table laden with delicious food. They were all trying to eat, but the handles of the spoons they had were very long, and so they could not reach their mouths with them or eat any of the food there.

All were starving and lamenting, and there was much disagreeable talk about those responsible for this terrible condition.

Now the Angel took the Man to the gates of Heaven. Again he looked in, wondering what he would find. How surprised was he when he saw the same table laden with the same good food and set with the same long spoons! There were many people gathered around it, and all were happily eating and looked quite content. How could this be? When he looked more closely, he saw they were all feeding each other.

There was much praising of those responsible for providing all the delicious food and the spoons whose handles were nice and long, so they could more easily help their neighbors enjoy everything!

I would like to make a connection to the Gather points here. Every once in a while there is someone who gives out very low ratings to many people, often without even leaving a comment. That person is trying to feed him- or herself with a long spoon. There are also people who leave wonderful, positive comments – and no 10 (or other rating). They fail to realize this also makes for fewer points for themselves.

What can we do about this? Disagreeable talk about it won’t make any difference. What will make a difference is going by and passing out tens with our long spoons, and feeding those who could use our help. Whenever I see a low rating I make it a point to go leave a 10, even if I leave no comment. It is nice to see a 5.5 change to a 7 with a simple little click! For me, a rating of 9.9 means many people have taken a moment and lovingly given a 10 to someone who was DB1’ed. Let’s all use our long spoons to help others out!

 Remember, the spoon is always full!