The Story: The apple tree grew all alone in the corner of the yard. It was near enough to the fence so that passersby could notice and look wishfully at the ripe red fruit; but far enough to be out of reach. This situation made the tree proud of its luscious red apples and he thanked heavens for making it so popular.
Once the farmer got sick in the farming season and suffered heavy losses. He had to sell a part of his yard to sustain himself. The new fence went right by the apple tree. Passersby reached out to pluck its fruit and more often than not, carelessly maimed it. Now, he cried every day and cursed God for this bright red fruit.
I remembered this story while two of my friends are discussing the pros and cons of committment. For the past one hour they have been arguing with each other going round and round in circles. And for how I know them, neither is going to give up.
What they do not realize this is, they are all like the apple tree. They see two extremes of the same position, but different situations. And there are infinite ones in between. There are also other fruits. Just like there are millions of human beings in the world and each is unique. They might be in similar position, but not the same. No single philosophy fits two of them. There might be approximations, but no equation gives exact results.
And then, they do not realize the absurdity of approximations. These people we are talking about are humans, not near humans or humans rounded up to the second decimal. And for each, life has to be perfect... and beautiful. And beautiful lives are not made of mathematics.
