The Net of Every Kind

A fisher cast a net into the lake and drew it in heavy. The net did not choose what entered; it gathered what swam into it. When it was full, the fisher sat on the shore and began to sort.

A crowd gathered and demanded a speech.

The fisher told them a story instead:

“Once there was a household that tried to live on everything it caught. It kept the fresh and the spoiled in the same basket. It called this ‘tolerance.’ By the third day, the good was tainted, and the children grew sick.”

“So the house learned a gentler wisdom,” the fisher continued. “It did not curse the spoiled. It did not pretend the spoiled was nourishing. It simply refused to feed its people with rot.”

The crowd shouted, “Then you hate what you discard!”

But the fisher answered, “No. I hate the sickness. I love the household enough to keep it clean.”

Then he returned the small living things to the water, kept what could be kept, and threw away what would poison the rest.

He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.