The Parable of the Soup

I heard the following parable at a workshop several years ago, without attribution, and have unsuccessfully searched for its author. The following is my paraphrasing of the original.

The Glorious Recipe

Once upon a time, there was a glorious recipe for soup. The cook who created the recipe marveled at its uniqueness and soothing effects. He made copies of the recipe and encouraged other people to make the soup a part of their everyday lives. The recipe made its way around and was soon in every village, every farm, and every city. As the recipe spread, advocates were split into factions.

Those Who Read the Recipe

The largest group of soup devotees believed that everyone needed to hear about this wonderful recipe. They came together every night and read the recipe over and over again, wondering aloud how the soup would taste, speaking of how ecstatic life would be if they made the soup. They made copies of the recipe and distributed it to everyone they knew, encouraging people to read the recipe often. Some put together study groups and debated the wording of the recipe. This gave rise to different interpretations and eventually split the group into sects.

Those Who Grew the Ingredients

A smaller part of soup devotees started growing the ingredients. They believed that agriculture was at the heart of the recipe because growing required character building, brought them closer to the earth, and made them humble to natural forces. With time the group suffered defections because growing the ingredients was hard, tedious, and time-consuming.

Those Who Cooked and Smelled

A still smaller group of devotees made a momentous leap. They began measuring and eventually cooking the ingredients, but they did not eat the soup. Rather, they sat around every evening after a hard day of tilling the earth and delighted in the aroma of the soup. They felt that the others had missed the whole point of the recipe, which, to them, was to smell the aroma, so sweet and appealing, so vibrant and voluminous. And so they sat, night after night, engulfed in the fragrance.

Those Who Were Full and Sated

The smallest group consisted of the precious few who ate the soup. This tiny group was the only one that realized that the true purpose of the recipe was to complete the cycle of reading, sharing, growing, smelling and then finally eating. Only they were full and sated.

Gudjon Bergmann
Author & Interfaith Minister

p.s. If you know who the original author is please let me know so that I can give credit where credit is due.

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