Once upon a time...
There was a little old man and his wife who lived in a little stone cottage that sat along the side of a babbling brook on the edge of a little town in a valley. The people in the town had many modern "conveniences" like cars and televisions and all kinds of motorized and electronic gadgets and gizmos. The little old man and his wife had none of those things, but they were content. They had a garden that produced food even in the dead of winter. In the summer, their garden produced so much food that the townspeople would come to see them in order to buy some of their prized excess produce. The little old man and woman were very simple people. They did not even have a road that went to their cottage, to arrive there you had to take a simple footpath through the woods.
One day, the mayor of the town ran down to the little stone cottage all in a panic. He was out of breath and bright red because he hadn't run before in his life, except when he "ran" for office. The little old man bid him come in and sit down at the rough-hewn log table and chairs in the cottage while the little old woman prepared a hot tonic of various herbs and roots to calm the mayor down a bit. She worked swiftly and handed the mayor a pottery mug full of steaming hot liquid. He took a big gulp and choked a bit, but was finally able to catch his breath and begin speaking. He told the little old couple that they'd just heard on the news that there was a great catastrophe befalling the entire country and everyone needed to go into underground shelters for at least two weeks right away. The news said they'd only be safe above ground, depending on your location in relation to the catastrophe, for 45 minutes to two hours more. The mayor said the way he figured it they only had about an hour to be safe in their little town before everyone would have to crawl into available cellars.
The little old man and woman were not at all worried. They had plenty of good food and even rocking chairs, quilts, books, candles, and everything to be quite cozy for a good long time set up in their cellar already, for it was one of their favorite places to retreat to when the summer heat became too intense. But the mayor had one more thing to ask them before he left to go with his family into their cellar. He asked the little old man to please save as many seeds as he had at that time, because he feared they would have no other food supply after this catastrophe. The little old man was not worried, he told the mayor he already had a good stash of seeds of all kinds stored up in a cave on the back side of their acreage. The mayor was relieved. He rose and quickly left, running back up to town.
Two weeks later, people began emerging from their cellars. Their radios and televisions and cell phones would not work. Some of them still had food, but there was precious little of it. Before the news broadcasts had been cut off, they had been informed that anything not protected underground was susceptible to being contaminated by the catastrophic event. They were heartened to learn that the mayor had asked the little old man and woman to save seeds to help the townspeople in this trying time.
It was nearly time to plant seeds anyway, so the old man cleared some land, and planted all of the seeds from his cave. About a month after the seeds were planted, the mayor came to ask the old man when the plants would be mature. "They're not ready yet," was all the old man said. Every two weeks, and then every week, the mayor returned to the old man and asked how the garden was coming along. "Not ready yet," said the old man. Finally, after three months, the mayor said, "Fabrice," for that was the little old man's name, "the people are beginning to feel hungry, the food is almost gone, please tell me the garden is ready!" The little old man looked at him and smiled, and with a twinkle in his eye he said, "It is!" "Really?" said the mayor with an enormous sigh of relief, "What wonderful news! I'll go gather the townspeople and we will come help get the food from the garden."
Soon, half the town was at the little old man and woman's cottage and they all began to follow the little old man back to the spot he had cleared for the garden. It was not a short walk, but not too long either. They wound through the woods and then crossed the brook, they came into a field and crossed an old wooden fence row from when there were cows and horses on the land years ago. Now, they came into a beautiful spot. Everyone began crying out, for there, before their eyes, was a field as far as their eyes could see that was filled with every color and variety of flower that you can imagine. Butterflies, hummingbirds, goldfinches and dragonflies flitted around everywhere. Some of the women began crying when they saw this enormous field of beauty. Even some of the men had tears welling in the corners of their eyes, but they were acting as if they were only squinting in the sunlight, not crying. The children were jumping around and laughing and began running through the field of flowers.
"This is beautiful!" said the mayor to the little old man. "What is this place?"
"Well, what did you think?" said the little old man. "This is our garden!"
"What?" said the mayor, a wave of horror quickly changing his face. "But what about the vegetables? What about the food?" He was panicking.
The little old man turned his face from the mayor and looked out across the field of flowers where the children were playing merrily, and said with a distant look in his twinkling eyes, "I can live without food. I cannot live without beauty."
~Fin.~
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