This is an old tale that illustrates a lot about diversity and humanity.
A young woman visited her grandmother and told her grandmother how hard life was. She was on the brink of giving up because she did not know if she could make it in this world. She was tired of struggling for everything and everyone. Any time a new opportunity arose, a new problem popped up.
The grandmother took the young woman into the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and brought them to a boil.
She went to the refrigerator and took out some carrots; she placed them in the pot. While in the refrigerator, she also took out two eggs and then placed them in the second pot. Then she went to the pantry, took out ground coffee beans and placed them in the third pot.
The grandmother let the items boil for about 20 minutes while she continued to listen to her granddaughter talk. After she turned off the burners, she fished the carrots out of the water and placed them in a bowl. She took out the eggs and put them in another bowl. Then she ladled the coffee into a third bowl.
She looked at her granddaughter and said, “Tell me what you see.”
“Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” the young woman replied.
The grandmother knew there was more than meets the eye. She pushed the carrots across the countertop to her granddaughter and told her to touch the carrots.
The grandmother said, “Feel the carrots.”
The young woman noted how soft they had become.
The grandmother then asked the young woman to break open the egg. After pulling off the shell, she noticed that the inside of the egg had turned from a liquid to a solid, hard-boiled egg.
Then the grandmother asked the girl to find the coffee grinds in the coffee. She noted that they had permeated the water to create something drinkable. She took a sip.
The granddaughter looked at her grandmother and said, “What’s the point?”
The grandmother explained to the young woman that each of the objects had faced the same adversity in the boiling water, but each reacted differently.
The carrot went from something strong, hard and crisp to something soft and weak.
The fragile egg in its thin outer shell became hard after spending time in the boiling water.
But the coffee grounds were different. Instead of changing on the inside, the coffee grounds permeated the water to create something new; they changed the water.
The grandmother asked her granddaughter, “which are you? When you are in a boiling pot of water, are you the carrot, egg or coffee bean?”
