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Carrot, Egg, or Coffee

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Reposted from email received. I did not write, but I do love it!coffee break by es

A Carrot, an Egg or a Cup of Coffee. Which are you? This was too good of a life lesson not to pass on! A carrot, an egg and a cup of coffee…. You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again. A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire.. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word. In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners.

She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, “Tell me, what do you see?” “Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” she replied. Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, “What does it mean, mother?” Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity … boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile.. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

“Which are you?” she asked her daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?” Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a break-up, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart? Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Tranform or be complicit

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I deeply believe in the work of the nonprofit/social benefit sector. And there are urgent issues of the day that need charity to address them, as change takes time. The idea of change-not-charity really appealed to me many years ago when I heard the phrase. YES, change the way things are so that we have different outcomes.

I was reading a site on philanthropy the other day, and they told a story of people saving babies floating down a river…that is charity. And then someone starts to run up the river–and the helpers beg them to come back to help save babies. But they shout back–I am going up river to see what to do about the babies going into the river to begin with. …that is about making change. Yes well…the river is there…and the babies are getting placed in it. Some are not helpless babies, but children and adults caught in the current. And going upriver to address the issues of how they are getting in the river is a huge improvement with leveraged impact over the band-aid result achieved by pulling people out of the river…but it still accepts–takes for granted–that there is a river.

Huh? Who made up this crazy metaphor?

My point here is that as long as we collectively empower the systems and structures; we aren’t really ending the problem. Micro-finance is not really going to end poverty. Different people might be poor, but it doesn’t end poverty. It might even change the dial on what is poverty…the new poor will live on $5 where last year they lived on $1, but their expenses will be higher, so it will go just as far. [Note: when I started writing about these issues 5 years ago, the stat was a $1 a day…now I see $2 a day…for example]

Farmers trying to deal with erosion could try to reclaim top soil (charity)…or they could try different farming practices that decrease erosion to begin with (change). But I would advocate that they look into the system that makes them farm in ways that are imbalanced with nature. Why do they grow so much corn and soybeans? [Read Biomimicry] What is the market driving the behavior that leads to erosion? [What are the policies governing international exchange and rewarding overabundance of some and wasting the production of others.]

Are you following me yet? The very rules of the game need to shift.

Fiat-currency –which we use pretty much universally, although it goes by different currency names, depends on someone being poor. Someone has to lose. Someone gets to win. The winners get to feel good about taking care of the unfortunate. This is the work of traditional philanthropy. I dream instead of transformative philanthropy where everyone involved leverages their wealth (social connections, knowledge, community strength and resilience etc) to shift systems. In this dream, there are no givers and receivers–only collaborators sharing the responsibility and benefits of improved communities.

What would workable ecosystems that enabled people to flourish be like? If we don’t ban fiat-currency–but instead see it as a stepping stone to our evolution, what is the next step that both includes and transcends this force in our world? Working toward that is transformative. Anything else results in being complicit in the very system that creates and maintains poverty.