Wednesday, 25 January 2012

• Parabolics in Motion

  By the definition given in my course on Fiction and Narrative, a parable is
  
  1) A brief narrative of manageable length, approachable style, and efficient use of language.
  
  2) An illustrative story that shows a principle in action, rather than merely telling about it.
  
  3) A response to some question implied by the experience of life.
  
  4) An oblique presentation that tells all the truth but tells it slant.
  
  In keeping with that definition, I present to you the following:
  
  
  

  Two Neighbors
   or
  The House that Fire Built
  
  

      There once was an empty house at the deadest end of a dead end street, presiding over a barren, vacant lot. On either side of the decrepit house lived two neighbors, both good men who enjoyed peace and prosperity in the comfort of their own homes. One dry night in summer, the empty house caught fire. Both neighbors ran down their respective stairs and out their respective front doors in their respective pyjamas and slippers to fight the fire. They proved unable to extinguish the fire before it spread to their homes as well. All three houses were destroyed and still the blaze burned on.
     
      The two neighbors battled the flames continually, pouring on water until all that remained on their side of the street was smoke and ash, peace and quiet. The fire was gone.
  
      In the wake of the disaster, both men began new lives. The neighbor to the left of the empty house, having stopped the fire, moved out of the neighborhood, got himself a better job on the better side of town, and forgot about the dead end street and the empty lot which he left behind for better and brighter things. He prospered in a mansion atop Highest Hill, a gated community for the best men in town, praising his good luck; for all that he lost in the fire was nothing compared to the wealth that he now possessed. But he never lived so comfortably as he hoped, because he was always wishing for more comforts than he had, there in the peace and quiet atop Highest Hill.
  
      But the neighbor to the right never left that street. He pitched his tent on the empty lot and hired himself out as a gardener to the more prosperous men on the better side of town, saving his wage until he had enough money to buy the three worthless, burned-out vacant lots. He knocked down the smoking hulks that remained there and built a modest brick house where the empty house once stood. On the barren, vacant lot, he planted a beautiful garden for the whole neighborhood to enjoy. He named his home the House that Fire Built, for though he had lost much in the fire, the little he gained back proved more than enough, since he now lived in a world rich with his own creation.
  
  
  

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