It was a
beautiful landscape, oil on canvas with hills and trees and rivers. Meadows
ending in flower bushes just next to the farm and so much more. The artist had
obviously spent months of thinking and creating this piece. Truly it was a
masterpiece. It was done so beautifully, kept so alive that one could almost
see the farm animals on the far side of the canvas graze. No wonder when one
creates a masterpiece like this, the attachment and proud come in heavy doses.
It was certainly the most prized painting by the painter.
While the
painter was busy creating more art work to augment the masterpiece he had
created; the master piece itself was not getting as much daily attention. And
then there came the notorious bunch. The kids from the neighborhood. The group
that was notorious for doing nothing but bad. They saw the masterpiece and
decided to own it. But how could a number of kids own one piece of painting.
Question was
difficult but solution as they thought was not as much of a problem. They would
simply divide the areas on the painting and own those. So the farm goes to the
fist and the mash goes to the second and then the far side mountains to the
third and so on. While they had spoken of the ownership still they would argue
about the extent to which their dominion on the masterpiece expended. Each one
wanting to bleed into the next one’s territory.
The arguments started becoming heated and soon there will be punches and
knuckles involved with the arguments.
Again the
solution came easy. Since they didn’t take the pain of creating it so they
didn’t care at all about the whole creation. They were just concerned about the
parts that they had reserved as their own dominion. The big buy in the bunch;
one fine day picked a piece of dark carbon stick and started drawing lines on
the painting, dividing everyone’s territory in a manner that he claimed was
just. The poor painting was smudged and no longer look like the masterpiece
that the artist had created.
“Wait this is
the bush on the side of the river so it is a part of the river that I own.” One
kid claimed. “No the bush is mine” the other kid retorted. And that lead to
disagreement about drawn boundaries and a fight like they never had before.
The loud
arguments and the sound of fists breaking on the teeth and backs were heard by
the painter who so far has quietly been working in his studio next door on his
next creation. He came running and tried to end the commotion, but soon he saw
his painting. His masterpiece was ruined, it had jiggered lines all over the
place. Right around the lines on some spots were smudges of blood that some of
the fighting kids have shed while, “saving his territory”.
Sad and angry
at the same time, the painter looked at them and….
I will not
tell you what the painter did but you think for yourself if you were the
painter what would you do in this situation?
After you
have answered, look at a world map and the beauty of the rivers and valleys and rain-forests and mountains and so on. Now bring the international border lines
on the same map. You will see how we the people have ruined the painting that the
master painter so painstakingly created to its perfection. Think hard now and answer,
would it not be fair for the master painter to give you (and me and everyone)
the same punishment that you had decided for the kids who ruined the painting?
