Parable of the Raging River

On opposite sides of a river valley lived two farmers with their families- one strong and young, the other a little older.  One day a storm rolled in, and the river flooded.

Their homes were destroyed- stone and wood scattered by the raging river.  Their loved ones cold and without shelter, both men were angry at the loss.  

"I will not stand for this!" the strong farmer cried.  "We have the right to live in safety and harmony.  We did nothing wrong- but the river struck us.  This injustice will not happen again- I will stop the river, destroy it, foul its course!"

He took his sons and prepared, collecting stone, timber, and tools to stop the river.

"Come, help us!"  He called to the elder farmer.  "The river is your enemy too."

The elder thought, then said no.

"What's wrong with you!" cried the first farmer.  "Don't you want your family to be safe?"

"Of course I do.  But I do not stand against the river."

"You would allow harm to come to our loved ones, then- you are either a coward or evil."  And the young farmer set to work.

He hurled stones into the water, built dams of timber, dug trenches, and labored passionately.  But the river flowed over his stones, pushed around his dams, filled his trenches.  After weeks of furious work, he was muddy, exhausted, spent.  The river flowed on.

Then he saw the elder farmer had spent his time building a new house- held up from the ground on firm stilts.  The next flood would pass underneath, leaving the elder farmer's family safe and dry. The strong farmer felt a wave of bitterness, clenched his fists, and began slinging mud.

"Look at you!" He cried up to the elder.  "You do nothing to stop the river.  By standing aside, you enable it's evil.  Condone it.  You are filth!  What do you have to say?"

The elder farmer closed his shutters, and replied.  

"The river is what it is.  I am too old to stand against what I cannot change.  Instead, I stand for dry safe homes.  ...Do you want me to teach you how to build one?"

The younger farmer became pious and irate.

"I stand against injustice, no matter what.  Even if you can evade the river, why would you allow its malevolence to continue?"

"I was planning on building a water-wheel."

"Go to hell!"

The young farmer stomped away, seething at the injustice of the world and its craven inhabitants.  He began thinking it fair that everyone should be equally dry, and perhaps such homes ought to be banned.  But his family left him to live with the elder farmer.

Because it is better to stand for something than against something.