bear lightly what needs must be

Once upon a time, a young man took a job in an orphanage. In a very short time, he discovered that this was extremely difficult work. The home was full of children who came from broken homes.

In the beginning, he tried his best to care for them. He tried to show them kindness, but the children were often difficult, mean, and vindictive. They attacked him in every way possible. The young man tried to empathize with the children, but they continued to be cruel. He followed the strict rules of the house and could not understand why the children would not listen to him. Although he did not show it, he was angered by the things the children did and said.

Days and weeks passed, but the young man and the children never stopped arguing. What made the situation worse was that the harder he tried to do his job, the worse the children behaved. The more he tried to enforce the rules, the more cruel the children seemed to become.

Soon, the young man was filled with anger and resentment. Finally, he could no longer tolerate the abuse from the children, and he decided to do something about it.

The man went to see a friend who sold special herbs. He described the situation and told his friend about the things the children were doing to him. He asked if his friend could give him some poison so that he could solve the problem once and for all.

His friend agreed.

"I will give you some pills that will slowly build up poison in their bodies and they will begin to comply. Every other day, prepare their favourite foods and put a pill in their food. To make sure no one suspects you, you must be very careful to act kindly toward the children. You must treat them as if they were your own and show them love."

The man agreed and thanked his friend. He was so happy that he could hardly wait to return to work and begin poisoning the children.

He remembered what his friend had said about avoiding suspicion. He controlled his temper, listened to the children, and treated them as if they were his own.

After several months, six months, the entire orphanage had changed. The man had practised controlling his anger so much that he found he almost never became upset. The children were no longer as cruel and were much easier to get along with. They even began to trust him and do as he asked. They started telling people that this was the best place they had ever lived and that it felt like a real home.

One day, the man returned to his friend to ask for his help once again.

"Please help me prevent the poison from killing the children. I was terribly wrong about them. They are not bad at all, and I do not want them to die because of the poison!" the man begged.

His friend smiled.

"When we treat man as he is, we make him worse than he is. When we treat him as if he already was what he potentially could be, we make him what he should be." Goethe

-Barry Smith