Twin Gardens

There once were two young boys, who were identical twins. Their parents died quite suddenly, and the boys were separated, each sent to a different caretaker.

The first was sent to a caretaker who served him cake for lunch upon his arrival. The boy found this both delightful and unusual, because he'd never gotten to eat cake for lunch. He soon found out his caretaker would feed him all manner of sweets at every meal, because she wanted the boy to like her, and she didn't want him to complain.

The second boy was sent to a caretaker with a garden. Most of what the boy was given to eat was grown by the caretaker herself. She fed the boy many fruits and vegetables, because she wanted the boy to like the body he lived inside. The boy wasn't used to having so many green things on his plate, and he wished he'd been sent to a different home.

The boys were grieving the loss of their parents, and each other. Because of this, they both were suffering from insomnia.

When the caretaker for the first boy would awaken to his tears in the middle of the night, she would bring him out to the television. Cartoons always cheered him up quickest, and then the caretaker could get the sleep she needed.

When the second boy would cry in the night, his caretaker would sit quietly next to his bed. When he grew too exhausted to sob, she would softly sing the lullaby her mother used to sing to her. Eventually, her singing would put him back to sleep.

When the first boy got upset and threw a fit, his caretaker had little patience for it. She felt obliged to grant him whatsoever thing he was screaming over--it was the easiest way to stop the fit so she could have some peace and quiet. The boy was pleased to know he could get what he wanted as long as he fussed, and his fussing increased.

When the second boy threw a tantrum on the other hand, it seemed almost like his caretaker wasn't bothered. She would not give him the thing he wanted as a result of his screaming. This certainly wasn't the quickest way to stop the tantrum, but the second boy realized it wasn't the quickest way for him to get what he wanted either. His fussing decreased.

A few months passed by, and the twin boys' caretakers arranged for the boys to meet up for a day. As the first boy talked about the endless sweets he got, and the cartoons he watched all night, and how he was given anything he screamed for, the second boy felt a pang of envy. How had he gotten stuck with the caretaker who only fed him vegetables and often didn't give him the things he wanted?

As the second boy and his caretaker made their way home, the boy described the life his brother was living. His caretaker listened carefully, and with interest.

"I wish my life were more like his," the second boy concluded.

His caretaker was quiet for a long pause. And then she said, "There are moments, I'm sure, I wouldn't mind the life of his caretaker either."

"What do you mean?" asked the second boy.

"Well, it sounds like she's getting good sleep. And the meals she provides aren't protested. She doesn't have to endure an extended amount of dissent from her boy...yes, I can see the appeal of her system," his caretaker said.

"Then why can't you be more like her?" the boy asked impatiently.

"Do you remember what I taught you the first day you came out to weed the garden with me?" the caretaker asked in return.

The boy clenched his teeth. Yet another unpleasant thing he had to do that his brother didn't. "No," he answered curtly.

"You were pulling at the stems and leaves without extracting the root, remember? I said, if you hack at the branches but leave the root, then our problem will keep coming back! Plants are like that, but people are too, I think," the caretaker said.

"I don't know what you mean," was the boy's reply.

The caretaker smiled softly and said, "Perhaps someday you will. But know this in the meantime: I am tending to you like I tend to my garden. With the best love and care I can. Daily work, with faith in the good fruit that is to come."

And so the twin Gardens grew, and while leaves and stems were hastily plucked at from that of the first, its weeds grew back, and in time there were too many to manage. Weeds overtook the first Garden and choked so many of its fruit-bearing plants.

The weeds in the second Garden, though, were pulled at the root. As in all gardens, new weeds would crop up, but they were tended to diligently. In time and with faith, there was much good fruit in the Garden.

After several years, the two caretakers met up again. The second caretaker brewed a cup of tea for the first as the young men they had raised caught up with one another. Then the women sat side by side, sipping their tea and talking together as women do. The longer their conversation went on, the more clearly the first caretaker saw the difference in the Gardens each of them had been tending to. She couldn't help but recognize how many more good fruits the second Garden bore than that of her own.

"I wish my Garden were more like yours," the first caretaker sighed.

"Have you tried extracting its weeds by the root?" asked the second. She'd been wanting to scold the first caretaker for not doing so for a long time now.

"What root?" asked the first caretaker, in all sincerity.

And the second caretaker remembered the danger in judging Gardens and Caretakers alike.

Expel the root of noxious weeds

to save the fruit of men and seeds.