A short moral story for children.
In a beautiful park the cedar tree stood tall and proud. Alongside him stood the lime tree, the lemon tree and a rather elegant orange tree that had such pretty, sweet-scented blossom which, in the due season, gave forth a succulent fruit.
People came from many miles away to sit in the park and drink of its peace and quiet, and gain refreshment from its beautiful scents and sights. They used to wander amongst the trees admiring the variety of new blossoms in spring, the heavily laden branches in summer and, in the early autumn, would eat of the fruits given forth. On hot, windless days it was to the cedar tree they went to shelter under its widespread cooling branches. Each tree had something to offer the visitors. Each tree had something to offer the other.
The cedar tree listened to the people saying how beautiful he was and how wonderful it was to be able to stand there and let him give them shade, and he spread his branches even further out and stood up even more proudly, basking in their adulation. Over time, he began to resent the people looking at the other trees around him for was not he the best? His vanity grew and grew and he made himself stronger by taking only for himself the nourishment in the soil that was there for all the trees. In his vanity he became greedy. He would posture and declare, “I am better than any of you. I will get rid of you all.” He showered the lime, the lemon and the orange trees with his needles and beat his branches against them until, worn down and weakened by the lack of goodness left in the soil, they withered and died, eventually to be cut down.
The cedar preened in his solitude and laughed, knowing that everybody would now only look at him and come to him for shade. They would all admire him and see how very strong and beautiful he was. Gradually, however, people stopped coming. There was no variety left in this once beautiful park; no mingling of scents and no sight of the many-hued blossoms. There was only the old cedar tree and he really was beginning to look rather ugly, wasn't he? He seemed over-large now, standing there without the other trees to distract the eye; almost out of place.
One night, there came a mighty storm. So great was the storm that the cedar, standing alone and without any support, swayed and bent. First one way and then the other and finally, in a massive rush of wind and with a final creak and groan that was terrible to behold, the mighty once proud cedar knew defeat and came, slowly at first and then with awful speed, crashing to the ground.
As he lay there dying he knew he had done a great wrong in wanting to stand tall and alone in the eyes of the people. He knew now that he had needed the support and protection of the other trees around him and that alone he had nor been able to stand the onslaught of the storms. In his vanity and greed he had leeched all the moisture from the surrounding land and, in the death of the surrounding trees, had lost their support from the high winds: The same winds that now buffeted against his prone trunk in full force. Inexorably he grew weaker and as he lay at the mercy of the emptiness around him he himself had created, the winds laughed at his distress and blew the more full.
A lesson? I think so. There is strength in unity and a bonding in togetherness and mutual help. A group is made up of individuals and needs that individuality to maintain cohesion but no one of those individuals is more important, nor should try to stand taller, than the others.
United we stand, divided we fall.
Paddina Cole (1915 - 2003)
Copyright 1991 The Erasmus Foundation.
The Erasmus Foundation, Moat House, Banyards Green, Laxfield, Suffolk. IP13 8ER. Tel: 01986 798682.