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There is a story of a farmer who grew award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won a blue ribbon. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. "How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?" the reporter asked. "Why sir," said the farmer, "didn't you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my
neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn too."
This farmer was very much aware of the connectedness of life. His corn could not improve unless his neighbor's corn also improved. So it is in other dimensions of life:
_ Those who choose to be at peace must help their neighbors to be at peace.
_ Those who choose to live well must help others to live well, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches.
_ And those who choose to be happy must help others to find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all. Is the application obvious? Generously sharing your best ideas no matter who gets the credit gives you a double reward:
(1) You feel good about yourself by having made a contribution to others,
and (2) at some point you will benefit from someone's success or their sharing with you. |
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