People

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Five Sticks


Five inexperienced hikers were lost on a mountainside. The winds were bitter and snow had begun to fall. They had used up all their food and water. In order to find their way more quickly, each person had foolishly tossed their heavy backpacks away long ago. Now the sun was beginning to set and they realized they must start a fire quickly or they would freeze to death.

Each of the five people had only kept one piece of firewood, to be used as a weapon in case a mountain lion ventured too near. Now, they knew the five sticks would need to be used to start a fire that would keep them warm through the night. But, who would be the first to forfeit his or her stick and lose their weapon?

The Millionaire staunchly refused to give up his stick because his wealth had been amassed by holding tightly to his assets. And besides, there was a vagabond beggar in the group. He wasn’t about to give up his stick for the likes of that wretched waste of humanity.

The Beggar, likewise, held his own stick close to him. It was people like the Millionaire that had put him in such a dire position in life. He wasn’t willing to now give up his only possession to bring comfort to the pampered moneybags sitting across from him.

There was also a black man in the group. He knew the group would prefer him not even being with them. His stick would remain with him for as long as the others held their’s.

Another man, a true bigot, knew how the black man felt. He harbored the same feelings of hatred himself. Let the black man keep his stick… he certainly wasn’t going offer a way to comfort his sworn enemy.

The fifth man in the party was a Christian. He would have gladly offered his stick, but he knew the sorry group he was with would not appreciate his generosity. They would only think he was being weak and giving in. So he also held on to his own stick.

The next morning a rescue team found the hikers huddled closely together. All five were dead, frozen by the frigid winds of the mountain blizzard. Each hiker held a stick in their hands… five pieces of wood that could have kept all of them alive.

In truth, it wasn’t the unrelenting blast of winter fury that killed these hikers. No one would ever really know that they had all died from the unrelenting frigid cold of their prejudiced hearts.

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