A farmer who won awards for his corn shared his best seeds with neighbors each year, puzzling a journalist. The farmer explained that wind can carry pollen between fields, so if neighbors grow inferior corn it could degrade his crops over time; therefore, helping neighbors improve their corn also helped his own crops. The summary concludes that to live well ourselves, we must help enrich others' lives, and our own happiness depends on helping others find happiness too, because individual well-being is connected to everyone's well-being.
Original Description:
Original Title
There was a farmer who was growing fine quality corn
A farmer who won awards for his corn shared his best seeds with neighbors each year, puzzling a journalist. The farmer explained that wind can carry pollen between fields, so if neighbors grow inferior corn it could degrade his crops over time; therefore, helping neighbors improve their corn also helped his own crops. The summary concludes that to live well ourselves, we must help enrich others' lives, and our own happiness depends on helping others find happiness too, because individual well-being is connected to everyone's well-being.
A farmer who won awards for his corn shared his best seeds with neighbors each year, puzzling a journalist. The farmer explained that wind can carry pollen between fields, so if neighbors grow inferior corn it could degrade his crops over time; therefore, helping neighbors improve their corn also helped his own crops. The summary concludes that to live well ourselves, we must help enrich others' lives, and our own happiness depends on helping others find happiness too, because individual well-being is connected to everyone's well-being.
There was a farmer who was growing fine quality corn.
Won the award for best corn every year.
One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how his field grew. The journalist discovered that the farmer shared his corn with his neighbors. "How can you afford to share your best corn seed with your neighbors when they compete for your corn every year?" the journalist asked. “Why sir,” said the farmer, “Didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade my corn quality. If I want to grow good corn, I have to help my neighbors grow good corn.” Same goes with our life... Those who want to live meaningfully and well must help enrich the lives of others, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others find happiness, because the well-being of everyone is connected to the well-being for all...