At work I recently served on a Toast Master's volunteer committee to spruce up a nearby park in the Atlanta area.  We cleaned up and painted playground equipment and put down wood chips so that kids would fall on something soft instead of concrete, and fixed some cooking grills that had fallen into disrepair.

Afterwards our committee lead decided to have a "unity rally" and invited the committee to come, so that the community could say thank you for the work.  So I went.  It was quite an evening, I'm glad I went, for a variety of reasons.  Some of which were so delightful and touchy.  Meanwhile, I heard a soft voice, I definitely want to share with you.

There was a very colorful fellow present at the rally, who spoke during the "open mic" time.  He is a wealthy, well known person in the community.  Let me paraphrase of his message on unity.

"You know after you enjoy a meal of pinto beans and corn bread, and everyone is gone from the table, and it's my turn to clear the table.  When cleaning I missed a crumb at the edge of the table, just a little crumb.  I turned back around and looked, a roach had crawled up on the table to that crumb, and before a minute went by there were three roaches going after that little tiny crumb, but there was no pushing, there was no fighting, there was no cussing, or name calling.  I realized right then, that we don't even have "roach unity."  Just a  few minutes earlier sisters, brothers and cousins couldn't even share a whole birthday cake without shouting "Mom, he got a bigger piece...He's eating all the cake, he pushed me, etc."  If roaches have more cooperation's and consideration for each other than we do, how can we expect to get anywhere?

It was an unexpected parable, and I did enjoy very much.  Feel free to share with others.

Thanks,
Chittaranjan Jyotishi