favormaxxing · Warm Crayon Parable

Same Famine

A four-panel crayon comic strip lettered SAME FAMINE. DIFFERENT RESULTS. First, six villagers in two teams play tug-of-war on the rope of a village well, a full bucket slopping water at the rope’s midpoint, while Isaac stands to one side in a softly glowing gold tunic with his hands open, declining to take hold. Second, Isaac walks away with a small wave while the six keep hauling behind him. Third, Isaac digs alone with a spade in an empty brown field and a dark spot of water appears at the bottom of his hole. Fourth, the villagers stand on cracked dry earth with their bucket tipped over, staring open-mouthed to the right, where Isaac stands beside his own well brimming with clear blue water in a field of green crop, holding out a full bucket toward them.

Isaac lets the crowd keep the disputed well and quietly digs another. In the same dry year that empties theirs, his field runs green. Nobody can explain it.

The whole series