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This is a segment from our publication Opportunities 2000: Creating Pathways Out of Poverty in Waterloo Region. You can e-mail or call us to order a hard copy of this document. Stone Soup A traveler happened upon a village. Hungry, he asked some of the villagers if they had some food to share with him that evening. One person after another apologized. The weather had been poor, the harvest bad. "My meager supplies won't do you much good," said each, walking away sadly. The traveler settled himself in the village square and built a small fire. He took a soup pot from his bag, filled it with water from the well and put it on the boil. Then, as some villagers looked on, he picked up a stone from the ground and dropped it into the pot. "What are you making?" they asked. "Stone soup," he replied. "Stone soup!" They laughed, "You can't make soup out of stones!" "Indeed you can," replied the traveler, "and it's delicious. Stay with me and we will share it when it's ready." So the small group sat and waited and talked while the water boiled. The traveler recalled another time when he had enjoyed stone soup with some friends. One of them happened to have some carrots to add to the pot. Oh, how it sweetened the broth! "I may have a carrot or two," said one of the villagers. He went and fetched some from his home, and put them in the pot. The group then settled again and talked some more. The traveler rubbed his chin and said, "Some people put potatoes or even onions in their stone soup. Others season it with thyme... Well, there's no sense dreaming about that." But others in the circle soon began to recall their favorite soups. As they did, the few items tucked away in their cupboards came to mind. One after another they went off. One returned with a turnip to add to the soup. Another came with a tomato and some parsley. Some brought back friends and family who had grown curious about the gathering in the square. A sweet aroma was now blowing in the breeze. In time, the newcomers joined in the dreaming and added their own favorite ingredients to the mix. By the evening's end, the traveler's pot was overflowing. Everyone ate well. They all agreed that the soup they shared that night was the most remarkable they had ever tasted. "And to think," said one, "it was all because a stone!" --- Like the story of the stone soup, Opportunities [...] is a story about the challenges of leadership and the possibilities of community. In both cases, someone took the risk that if they held out a vision of what could be, others would respond and make it so. That faith in the willingness of others to contribute to a worthy cause is the first, and perhaps the greatest challenge of leadership. Among the possibilities of community, the discovery that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts always seems to come as a sweet surprise.
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Opportunities Waterloo Region235 King Street East,Kitchener, ON N2G 4N5Tel: (519) 883-2353 Fax: (519) 568-8587 Send us
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