David Webb, who resides in the UK, is currently requesting any information regarding his ancestors who resided in Moose Jaw in the early 1900s. He also relayed the story below that I found quite profound. He says it has stuck with him throughout the years and often uses it as a yard stick when he meets people. The hope is you find it of interest and thought provoking, too.
Once an old man was sitting outside at a café at the entrance of a town railway station.
A young man who had just got off the train, approached him and said: "I am not from here. I come from far away.
"Tell me old man, how are the people of this town?"
Instead of replying to him, the old man asked back: "And in the town from where you come, how were the people?"
The young man, responding temperamentally, blurted: "Egotistic and wicked, so much so that I could no longer take it.
"That is why I preferred to leave!"
The old man said sympathetically: "Pity, my dear. I shall advise you to continue on your way and get the next train out.
"People here are equally wicked and all are egotistic."
A little later, another young man approached the same old man at the station and said: "Greetings to you who is wise with age! I should like to settle down in this place.
"Tell me, how are the people who live in this town?"
And, the old man asked him: "Tell me first, where from do you come, and how were the people there?"
The young man said in an enthusiastic voice: "Honest, good, and welcoming! I had only friends there, and oh, how I was pained to leave them but pastures new beckoned!"
The old man said: "Well, here, you will also find only honest people, welcoming, and full of kindness."
A newspaper seller selling his papers on the platform, not far from these exchanges and had heard all, asked the old man: "How is it possible, old man, who I know to be wise and honest, to give two truthful, but diametrically opposite, replies to the same question? Is it a case of April Fools?"
"My son," said the old man, "Each one carries, in his heart, his own universe.
"And that is what he will find every place he goes."
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
