A man spoke with an Angel about heaven and hell. The Angel said to the man, "Come I will show you hell."
They entered a room where a group of people sat around a huge pot of stew. Everyone was famished, desperate and starving. Each held a spoon that reached the pot, but each spoon had a handle so much longer than their own arm that it could not be used to get the stew into their own mouths. The suffering was terrible.
"Come, now, I will show you heaven," the Angel said.
They entered another room, identical to the first. The pot of stew, the group of people, the same long-handled spoons. But there everyone was happy and well- nourished.
"I don't understand," said the man. "Why are they happy here when they are miserable in the other room and everything was the same?"
The Angel smiled. "Ah, it is simple," she said. "Here they have learned to feed each other."
~Author Unknown
