The Parable of the Grandparent and the Children Next Door

One day while teaching, Josh was asked, ”Teacher, are we monitoring the rest of the world better than we’re monitoring ourselves?”

Josh spoke thus:

A grandparent was watching the children in the neighboring yard.

“Just look at those monsters,” the grandparent said to the grandchildren in the grandparent’s living room, “They’re running around that yard like it’s a racetrack and they’re Secretariat.  That poor lawn is turning brown while I watch.  Who lets their kids ruin their lawn like that?  Just look at how brown that lawn is turning!”

The grandchildren didn’t watch how brown the lawn next door was turning.  The grandchildren were pouring plant food into the carpet to see whether it would make the carpet grow.

“And now look what they’re doing!” the grandparent said, “They’re pulling up flowers!  They’re running in the flowerbeds, and they’re pulling up flowers, and they’re making bracelets and bunches and garlands!  All of those flowers, dead.  All of those flowers gone!  And for what?  Gee-gaws.  Trinkets.  Bunches of flowers that will sit on the table for a day and be gone.  They don’t know how to water a bouquet.  They don’t know how to make a garland keep.  All those flowers gone!  Who lets their kids do that to their flowers?  Look at the way they’re tearing up those flowerbeds!”

The grandchildren didn’t watch how the children next door were tearing up the flowerbeds.  The grandchildren were plucking the nap out of the sofa’s upholstery.  They were grabbing the fringes of the cushions and unravelling the woven threads.

“Well isn’t that too much!” the grandparent said, “Now they’ve gotten at the apple trees, and the plumbs and the pears.  They’re grabbing fruit as though they had a right to it.  What time have they put into caring for those trees?  What trimming have they done?  What troweling beneath, to keep the soil aerated?  How have they sprayed for may flies and inchworms and beetles?  They’ve done nothing.  Nothing!  And now they’re climbing and plucking and eating and tossing like those apples are theirs, like they own those plumbs, like those pears grow just for their pleasure.  Look at how they snatch and grab at those apples!

The grandchildren didn’t watch the children next door snatching and grabbing at apples.  The grandchildren were in the kitchen, pulling jams down from the cupboards, snatching rolls out of the breadbox, grabbing butter and juice from the refrigerator.

“Some people don’t know how to watch after their young ‘uns,” the grandparent said to the grandchildren, “Some people just don’t know the damage they’re doing.”