– Welcome!” he says, with a benevolent but not arrogant air. I’m the tree at the heart of the forest and I know the area better than you do. If you follow my advice, you’ll become as strong and handsome as I am!
The naive new tree asks:
– How can I be as beautiful and strong as you, who have the strength and stature of an oak? I’m a mere fir tree, and I could never match your greatness and strength, and the hardness of my thorns is no match for the grace of your foliage.
The flattered oak proudly replies:
– You’re right about your looks, you’ll never be as strong and handsome as I am, but thanks to my knowledge, you’ll be able to extract everything you need from the earth to nourish your inner self!
The tree, intrigued, retorts:
– How do you know what’s good for me? You’re just an oak, and you’ve only tasted what you were meant to. Maybe I need different food, because you and I are different by nature.
The tree in the heart of the forest, irritated by this other’s insolence and unsettled by so many questions, feels its roots full of conviction twist in the depths of its inner self, the bark of confidence begins to crack, the sweet sap that has always nourished it turns to bitterness, the branches of pride curl up; and, little by little, the leaves of certainty fall one by one. Shaken, the great tree asks in despair:
– What have you done with me?!!??! I was the most beautiful and the strongest in the forest, and now that you’ve arrived, my beauty is darkened by your questions and my strength is shaken by your naivety!
The fir tree replies in a gentle but firm voice:
– My questions are only the reflection of your questioning, and my naivety is only the veil of your own naivety.
A chill wind runs through every root of the oak, through the trunk full of conviction, spreading through the branches of pride to shake the leaves of certainty; and little by little he is won over by the aridity of doubt and the winter of solitude. The bark of his heart begins to moan:
– I was rooted in my convictions and thought I was pretty much accomplished, now I’m chained to doubt and have lost all my shine!!!! What can I do to look my best again?
The new tree calmly replies:
– The solution lies at your feet, search, dig, deep down into your bowels and be aware of every part of them, the best and the worst. Stop at your bad roots and work on them with patience and perseverance. To do this, arm yourself with courage…
– Very well, very well! I’ll do just that!! interrupts the oak, chained by fear, I’ll fight until the bad seeds inside me turn into more fertile ones, and…
– Ah, but I haven’t finished yet,” says the fir tree, “watch out! For your good seeds may contain more evil than your bad ones! Yes, the arrogance of your qualities can bury the worst of evils, namely complacency. The brilliance of your own qualities can blind you to yourself, for how can you leave room for the Other when you’re self-indulgent in your virtue? So arm yourself with double the courage to clear away the evil that lies within your good.
The oak tree, in total disarray, mourns:
– You’re asking me to destroy my bad seeds and also to fight the good ones inside me, but what’s left for me then? I don’t know who you are, I don’t know who I am anymore… I’m ready to accept you into my world as you are, but you’ve got to help me find out who I am! I’ve got nothing left, nothing but doubt, fear and suffering! Please help me…
The fir tree, touched by his neighbor’s sincerity and humility, said to him in a reassuring voice:
– You’ve got nothing so you can have everything! If you want to live fully, that is, in sharing with the Other, in sharing with me, and above all in true peace with yourself, you have to deconstruct everything, not so much to appear the most beautiful, but to be the most just.
The oak confesses:
– I realize that I’ve always had an emptiness, I lived by myself, but without inner peace. I tried to appear to be something else, the better to hide my non-being. Now I accept! I accept you, just as you are, even if it’s at the cost of doubts, fears and suffering… Strangely enough, this inner battle gives me a glimpse of true peace, with you, with myself, with others. The ego of my inner self has long veiled me from the richness of the Other. I hope to continue this dialogue with my ego so that we can sign a peace pact, to better welcome strangers to my land, so that we can share it and make it fruitful together… and perhaps, one fine day, other trees, new fruits will appear, and with this diversity, the forest of life will be a perpetual source of learning and therefore of richness…
The fir tree concludes:
– My arrival has destabilized you, for I have destroyed the fortresses of certainty you built out of fear of the Other. Now that you’ve laid down your weapons to fight your ego, and decided to fully face the present of diversity, with its sufferings and lessons, its uncertainties and gifts, you can finally aspire to true peace. When I arrived, you wanted me to be like you, but you’ve never been so far from me and even further from yourself; now that you’ve accepted my otherness, you’re now a part of me and I’m becoming a part of you.
Moral of the fable :
– The Other, with his diversity, reflects back to us our own inner mirror, altered by the rust of the ego. If we work on polishing our own faults from within, and not on the differences we see in the Other, then, little by little, the veil of ignorance will be lifted to make room for the Other as a reflection of ourselves, and ourselves as a reflection of the Other. Change yourself so that the world can change*, change yourself to better find the Other.
* Motto of Initiatives of Change, an international NGO promoting peace and reconciliation.