A Favorite Story

Here’s one of my favorite stories, The Tinderbox: two Native American braves were chosen to compete to be the next chief. The challenge was to be the first to arrive at the top of the Sacred Mountain at night and light a fire. They were each given an ember in a tinderbox to carry with them. They set off and halfway up the mountain the first brave encountered an old man, shivering in the cold. The old man asked the brave to let him use the ember in the tinderbox to relight his fire. The brave replied, “I don’t have time. I must reach the top of the mountain and start a fire there to become the new chief.” He left the old man. Soon after, the second brave encountered the old man and was asked to borrow the ember from his tinderbox. This brave wanted to win the competition but realized he couldn’t leave the old man to die of cold. He took the ember out of the tinderbox and used it to relight the old man’s fire. Once the fire was going, he took an ember out of the fire and placed it in his tinderbox. He realized he was behind in the competition but continued onward. Down below, all the people watched to see when a fire would appear on the top of the mountain. Finally, a fire appeared. It was set by the second brave. When the first brave reached the top of the mountain, his ember had burned out. The second brave still had a live ember from replenishing the old man’s fire.