Seeing the Fragment
The story is told of an old Chinese man who lived in a tiny village with his son. He was extremely poor but owned a beautiful white horse. No matter how much he was offered, he refused to part with it. One day the horse disappeared. The village people jeered at the old man “You silly old man. You should have sold the horse when you could.”
“All we see is a fragment,” replied the old man, “not the whole.”
After many days the horse returned. It hadn’t been stolen, but had escaped into the woods. But on its return it brought another ten wild horses with it.
The village again gathered round, and again the old man said “All we see is a fragment, not the whole.”
The old man’s son began to ‘break in’ the horses. But a fall left him with two broken legs that would take months to heal.
The village gathered round. “You silly old man. Why didn’t you sell the first white horse? Why didn’t you sell the ten unbroken horses? You will always be poor.”
“All we see is a fragment,” replied the old man, “not the whole”
A few weeks later the local king went to war against a neighbouring kingdom. He sent soldiers throughout his lands taking every young man to fight for him – every young man except the old man’s son. He was too crippled to fight. The war went bad for the local king and every young man from the village was killed. The only one left was the old man’s crippled son.
Remember that in this life, all we see is a fragment, not the whole.
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