the winning farmer

"WHY DO YOU SHARE...?"

A reporter once asked a farmer to divulge the secret behind his corn, which won the state fair contest year after year. The farmer confessed it was all because he shared his seed with his neighbors.

"Why do you share your best seed corn with your neighbors when you're entering the same contest each year as well?" asked the reporter.

"Why sir," said the farmer, "didn't you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grew inferior corn, cross-pollination would steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbor do the same."

And so it is with other situations in our lives. Those who want to be successful must help their neighbors, friends, relatives be successful. Those who choose to live well must help others live well, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches.
And those who choose to be happy must help others find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all.

-James Bender